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LAKE GEORGE; 



(ILLUSTRATED.) 



A BOOK OF TO-DAY, 



S. R. STODDARD. 



:C;/OFC^ 






ALBANY: 
WEED, PARSONS AND COMPANY, PRINTERS. 

1873. 






Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and 
seventy-three. 

By S. R. STODDARD, 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



WEED, PARSONS & CO., 

PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS, 

ALBANY, N. Y, 









TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



\ Page. 

^ Ego 3 

^ *' Off for Lake George," 6 

Glen's Falls : 

The village, hotels, falls, caves, etc 9 

On the Plank : Our party 16 

Pond Lillies 20 

The Half-way House 21 

Williams Monument 25 

Bloody Pond 26 

Arrival at the Lake 29 

Lake George : 

Discovery, name, some information, references, etc. 30 

Lo ! the poor Indian 32 

Caldwell, hotels, etc 37 

Crosbyside 41 

Old Fort William Henry 43 

The Garrison 44 

Fort George : An adventure 45 

The Historian Rises to Explain 48 

Topographical 50 

Battle of Lake George 51 

Vaudreuil's expedition 53 

Capture of Fort William Henry 54 

The massacre 55 

Ringing the changes 56 

Steamboats — past and present 57 

Small boats 59 

Fishermen, their terms, information, etc 60 

Game laws 60 

Excursions 61 

I Table of distances ' 62 

Down the Lake : 

Tea Island 64 

Diamond Island 66 



2 Contents. 

Down the Lake— (Concluded) ; Page. 

The Coolidge House 6^ 

" Alpha, Delta, Phi " 68 

Kattskill Bay, hotels, etc 69 

Dome Island 70 

Recluse Island 71 

Bolton 73 

The Mohican House 75 

The Bolton House, others jj 

Church of St. Sacrament 79 

From Shore to Shore : Shelving Rock ^o 

Fourteen Mile Island 81 

Personal 82 

Hen and Chickens, Huckleberry and Refuge Islands, 83 

Shelving Rock Falls 84 

The Narrows 85 

Through the Narrows ^6 

Black Mountain, "As You Were Island " 86 

The Harbor Islands ; Parker's Expedition ^j 

Epicurean 88 

Captain Sam as a Sailor 90 

The Deer's Leap 92 

The Elephant 93 

Hulett's Landing 94 

The Bosom 95 

Sabbath Day Point 96 

Hague loi 

Anthony's Nose 102 

Rogers' Slide 103 

Prisoners' Isle 104 

" Good bye," 106 

Appendix 107 

The hotels, their situation, attractions, accommo- 
dations, terms, etc 109 

Steamboats and stages, their officers, fares, time 

tables, etc., for 1873 114 

Probabilities 115 




STRONG conviction 
of duty, a laudable de- 
sire to give informa- 
tion, and a philanthropic 
willingness to contribute some- 
thing, in shape of advice, to a long 
suffering people, coupled with the 
known fact that the pubHc demand 
some source wherefrom can be drawn, 
as from a living fountain, supplies of 
knowledge, has mduced the author, in a 
fit of temporary insanity, to attempt the 
semi-literary feat of perpetrating a guide 
book. 

I shall endeavor to write of Lake George as it 
appears to me, giving my impressions of things in 
general, "with mahce toward none, with charity 
for all," and if I err in judgment, if I either wrong 
or unduly extoll the virtues of any person, place 



4 Lake George. 

or thing, it will be an error of the head and not the 
heart. 

My aim is to answer questions oftenest asked, to 
tell of things that seem most to interest the public, 
and in so doing will probably say many foolish 
things and talk about little things, but it is well to 
remember that life is made up of little things, and 
a laughing baby is more endurable than a cross 
philosopher, therefore do not expect bomb-shells 
from a shot gun, or very much sense in the follow- 
ing pages. 

Although the main object is to give information 
(for a consideration), I may occasionally slop ov^er 
into sentiment, but will try and not afflict my read- 
ers very often in that way, while for the benefit of 
such as are in constant danger of making mistakes, 
I will point out places where it is considered emi- 
nently proper to go into ecstacies over scenery, 
etc. I am not going to write a history, however, 
because the wear and tear on an ordinary brain 
must be immense; and, moreover, the country is 
full of them. All others who have written of the 
silvery lake have made discoveries, I have not. I 
regret exceedingly that such is the case. I have, 
however, served the principal events up in a ne^v 
dress, and in the light of later revelations, twisted 
some of the old ones about so as to answer every 
purpose ; but it all happened some time ago, is, 



Ego. 5 

consequently of little interest to the general reader, 
and has, therefore, been given in small doses, which 
may be skipped at pleasure for the hotels and other 
things of the present day. 

The illustrations are on wood by Sears, Chubb 
and Ferguson, and etchings by the author, after 
the new process by John McGuire, of Albany, 
who, in place of the ordinary manner of cutting 
with acid, has reduced the old dream of '' build- 
ing" up by galvanic action to a certainty, and 
while the imperfections of newness cling to them, 
they indicate what the process is capable of. 

Thanks are due (in the first edition, as is custom- 
ary) to many kind friends for help in bringing it 
to a head, and especially to Dr. A. W. HOLDEN, 
the historian, for valuable assistance in the particu- 
lar branch which has been his life study and as such 
to be relied on. 

Prefaces are detestable and seldom read, but if 
nothing was created in vain the w^riter hopes, by 
putting this excuse among the legitimate reading 
matter, that some absent minded ones may possibly 
struggle through to the end before discovering 
their mistake, and thus become acquainted with a 
few of the reasons, and perhaps think kindly of 
him who now bids farewell to earthly fears, and 
wades shiveringly into the surging sea of literature. 

Glen's Falls, May, 1873. 




FF for Lake George ! How 
the heart bounds and the pulse 
quickens at the very sound of 
the words that bring with them 
thoughts of the holy lake. In 
fancy we once again breathe 
the air, heavy with the odor of 
pines and cedar, or fragrant with 
the breath of blossoming clover.. 

Again we wander among the daisies and but- 
tercups that gem the hillside, sloping so gently 
down to where the wavelets kiss the white 
beach, or floating among the verdant islands watch 
the sunlight and shadows chase each other up the 
mountain side, while every crag and fleecy cloud is 
mirrored in {he quiet waters below. 



Off for Lake George. 7 

Wanderers are we in search of the beautiful, as, 
with our backs to the dusty city and our faces set 
toward the mountains, we move swiftly along. At 
length the ponderous wheels cease to revolve, and 
our iron horse, breathing forth fire and smoke, rests 
at the end of his journey. Here, at Glen's Falls, 
the stages are taken for Lake George ; and it has 
been whispered among the knowing ones, that, 
as the outside seats are the most desirable, they are, 
as such, to be vigorously ''gone for." 

Now all is confusion ; bundles are hastily gathered 
up ; babies are sorted, and, sallying forth under a 
triimiphal arch of whips, we are cordially greeted 
by the holders thereof, and pressingly invited to 
take a free ride with them. Coaches for any part 
of the village ; coaches for the hotels ; coaches for 
Lake George, and coaches for the Adirondacks, are 
there. Everybody is asking questions which nobody 
finds time to answer; would-be passengers jostle 
against each other; runners shout, drivers swear, 
boys hoot and laugh, seeming to enjoy the scene, 
while loungers encourage the competitors and 
applaud the victors in the race, as, with frantic 
haste, like sailors boarding the ship of an enemy, 
they charge on the lake coaches, and swarm up 
over wheel and boot to gain the much coveted out- 
side seat. Perhaps you split your best coat open 
down the back reaching for the railing; drop your 
umbrella, cane, good manners, and a little swear or 
two; but what of that? "Victory is not to the 
strong alone, but the vigilant, the active and the 
brave." You know it, and make a dash for the 
wheel, and with your hand on the top are about to 



8 Lake George. 

swing yourself up, when a chap pokes his head 
vigorously against your unprotected vest pattern, 
and basely taking advantage of your momentary 
weakness causes a total eclipse of your head by 
vigorously climbing up over it. You rally to the 
charge once more ; by a desperate effort you reach 
the top, and are permitted to witness a magnificent 
fourth of July celebration, in consequence of a col- 
lision with an energetic fellow, who comes up on 
the other side just as you triumphantly balance 
over on yours. Then breathlessly, and with a sigh 
of infinite relief, you slide into the only remaining 
seat, just as a young lady, with an eye to the same 
place, flutters contentedly down in your lap. Of 
course you ought to give it up and walk, if needs 
be, but you don't ; you compromise, however, and 
condense, and by a little judicious squeezing — not 
such an objectionable thing after all, considering 
the company, and with harmony and the other arti- 
cles restored — proceed on your ride ''over the 
hills and far away," through the pure, fragrant air, 
with the coach swinging and swaying about, 
threatening all with apparent destruction, so that 
it is only by great presence of mind, in clinging 
firmly to your fair partner, that she is saved from 
an untimely death. Then somehow you discover 
that you have both been to the same place some- 
where else sometime, and you gabble all the time, 
and do get on amazingly ; and, bless you, it's aiv fully 
jolly and interesting, and all that, you know\ I've 
been there. 




GLEN'S FALLS, 
First by the Indians called '' Che- 
pon-tuc," meaning- '' a difficult place 
to get around," was afterward 
named by the English the " Great 
Falls." Then Abraham Wing, one 
of the first settlers, who received 



lo Lake George. 

a grant of land surrounding it, built a mill there, 
from which circumstance it became known as 
Wings; but, in consideration of his footing, the 
bill for a wine supper (some say a bottle of wine), 
Wing sold his birth-right to a Mr. Glen, and 
it was ever after known as Gle?is Falls. The vil- 
lage is situated on both sides of the falls, from 
whence it derives its name, Avith several large cities 
lying around, as near as they can conveniently 
get. Puritanic and eminently proper Boston, on 
the east, acts as a moral astringent, but the bal- 
ance of power is preserved by Chicago on the 
west. New York is only two hundred miles 
away, and coming nearer and nearer every year. 
Albany is near enough, considering the morals of 
that legislative place, and — since the peaceful 
adjustment of the Alabama and codfish questions — 
Montreal has given up all hope of being absorbed 
by this flourishing town. Just at present it con- 
tains only about 8,000 inhabitants ; but the young 
folks are getting married all the time, and it is 
really a go-ahead sort of place. 

The Rockwell House is new, built of brick; 
situated in the business center of the town. At 
its front squirts the village pet — the new fountain ; 
at its back is a pretty croquet lawn ; the rooms 
large, airy, luxuriously furnished, and supplied 
with all the modern improvements, and the proprie- 
tors, H. J. & C. L. Rockwell, are members of that 
well-known family of hotel men whose name alone 
is a sufficient guaranty of the excellency of the 
accommodations. 

It is advisable to stop over one stage at least, as 



Glen's Falls. ii 

much will be found to edify and interest the pil- 
grim in the pretty village, the immense stone, 
paper, flouring and saw-mills, the glittering cata- 
ract, the fossiliferous bed over which it dashes, 
and the cave made memorable by the pen of the 
great romancer. Even if comfort alone is con- 
sulted, it will dictate a short stop, for here and at 
the " American" the accommodations are all that 
heart could wish, and the tourist will arise, like 
a giant refreshed with new wine, fully prepared 
to enjoy the very enjoyable stage ride (which 
should always be taken by daylight) over the 
plank, to Lake George, nine miles away. 

The American House, on Monument Square, 
kept by George Pardo, although ranking second 
since the erection of its more aristocratic neighbor, 
is still a first-class hotel, and its independent pro- 
prietor (an inveterate sportsman, who seems to 
keep it more for the accommodation of his friends 
than to make money), gathers around him a host 
of kindred spirits, even those who throw the dainty 
fly and track the wild deer and moose in their 
native forests. 

Glen's Falls is noted chiefly for the production of 
lumber, Hme and loafers. Lime stone is quarried 
below the falls in immense quantities, as is also 
black marble, which is sawed into slabs for table 
tops, mantles, etc. This marble is placed under 
gangs of toothless saws, which, moved by water 
power, swing slowly back and forth under con- 
stantly dripping water ; the friction secured by the 
use of a coarse, gritty sand, and the plates thus 



12 Lake George. 

covered slowly eat their way through the hard 
rock. 

The village boasts of six churches, a number of 
elegant stores, a paper mill, two flouring mills, 
three or four immense saAv-mills, and about a hun- 
dred gin mills. Among the latter number I have 
classed the ^' wine parlors," not knowing just where 
to draw the dividing line, for when asked to tell 
the difference, I must honestly confess my igno- 
rance, and give the conundrum up at once ; from 
palace to pit is but a little way, it is simply A Ipha 
and Omega. 

-The educational advantages are afforded by sev- 
eral public and private schools, an academy, a 
seminary, which turns off a number of young 
ladies every year with certificates of finishment and 
gold medal attachments. I have myself seen sev- 
eral of these young ladies, and unhesitatingly afhrm 
that they are real nice, in which opinion I am not 
alone, judging by the host of young men who flock 
to the ''commencements," and also t vthe unre- 
mitting attendance of said young men on the 
church to which the young ladies go ;. there are 
also two opera houses, two newspapers, three 
engine companies, a young men's association, 
ladies sewing society, Benedict's unrivaled plasters 
and the village pound. 



The Soldiers' Monument. 



13 




The soldiers' monument is one 
of the finest in the country. 
.Graceful and well balanced, it 
stands an ornament to the village, 
and a tribute of love to the brave 
boys whose blood stains southern 
battle fields, and whose names 
are orraven on its surface. It is 
46 feet in height, of Dorchester 
sandstone, and erected at a cost 
of upward of twelve thousand 
dollars. America's symbol of 
eternal vigilance rests on the sum- 
mit ; life-size figures with bowed 
heads — one leaning on his musket, the other rest- 
ing on his sword — stand on^ either side, while the 
cross, the croAvn, the oak leaves twined, keep fresh 
and green in the hearts of their countrymen the 
memor}^ of " Our Heroic Dead." 

Water to supply the village is brought through 
pipes from the Luzerne mountains, a distance of 
five miles, the works containing within themselves 
such a power that a half dozen streams can be 
thrown at one time from hydrants to the tops of 
the highest buildings — which state of affairs has 
reduced the three engine companies to a peace 
footing, and rendered them more an ornament than 
a necessity. 



14 



Lake George. 



Two miles above the village the river is dammed 
— by the State, and the water through the " feeder " 
supplies the summit-level of the Champlain Canal — 

a part flowing 
north from this 
point, the rest 
south to the pa- 
rent flood again. 
Private enter- 
prise has also 
thrown a barrier 
across the river 
at the head of the 
falls, turning a part 
of it aside to drive 
great gangs of 
saws through the 
millions of logs 
that come floating 
down from the 
northern wilder- 
ness. Over this the amber waters 
break in one broad sheet, extend- 
ing from shore to shore. Paus- 
ing an instant on the brink, 
then churned into white fury in 
its fierce battle with the broken 
rocks, it plunges down the pre- 
cipice, seething, boiling, foam- 
ing, thundering, leaping from rock to rock, turn- 
ing back upon itself, its ceaseless roar sounding, 
and its spray rising high up against the rain- 
bow-spanned walls. The rocks are blue and 




Glen's Falls. 15 

black and gray, with curious markings, in which 
fossils of various forms and shells are found. 
Dividing near the head, its waters pass on either 
side of the island that is partially flooded in times 
of high water. Near the lower end, where the 
blue rock is notched and broken out, we climb 
down to the level of the water, and enter the cave 
made memorable by Cooper in one of his wild 
Indian stories. We can pass entirely through the 
outer, but the entrance to the smaller one is stopped 
up by logs and drift-wood. When the water is 
very low you can pass around the lower end of 
the rock up to the south opening, Avhere the face 
of the savage so startled Cora, and revealed the 
hiding place to their enemies. Here Uncas, " the 
last of the Mohicans,''^ Avatched while the sisters 
slept, and the shores on either side teemed with 
their savage foes. Now ragged urchins, fully and 
more than posted in the Avild legends of the place, 
point out the tiger and serpent in the dark rock, and 
the very z-dentical tree from which the Mingo fell, 
when spoken to by the unerring rifle of Le Long 
Carbine. There have been several of these identi- 
cal trees, and they are getting pretty well used up, 
but the boys are bound to perpetuate the thing if 
it takes all the trees in the country, and the story 
is rapidly growing to be a matter of history. The 
listener shuddering with horror as he pictures to 
himself the chnging savage and the wild, blood- 
curdling yell that went up, as clawing wildly the 
empty air, he fell, and the dark waters closed over 
him. 







'' ON THE PLANK." 
THE great ever-to-be- remem- 
bered feature of a trip to Lake George 
^ is the stage ride, affording, as it does, an 
'\ inexhaustible subject for conversation and 

food for after-thought, fresh air, sunshine ^ 
and an uncommonly fine opportunity for the study 
of character. This line is one of the finest in the 
country the stages, of the kind called " Concord," 
like the horses, are always in good order, carrying 
from twenty-five to thirty passengers, besides a 
small truck load of baggage, and making the trip 
in about an hour and a quarter. The outside 
seats are, of course, the favorite, affording the 
best view of the country, as they go swinging 
along, and sometimes it happens that all want 
to sit there, when, like some poorly-ballasted 



On the Plank. 17 

ship, '' with all on deck and nothing in the hold," 
they go with just enough of the spice ot danger 
about the position to make it interesting, their 
safety resting in the sure eye and steady hand of 
the one who guides the horses, for a little veering 
off from the narrow plank in some places might 
cause a hasty unloading of all, therefore only tried 
and trusty men are employed as drivers ; and, bless 
you, dont they know and feel their importance? — 
only equalled b}^ a country undertaker conducting 
a first-class funeral. 

Before the route was as Avell known as at pres- 
ent, many a purse of two to three dollars has been 
made up and given to the driver to repay him for 
the " extra danger and labor of driving round by 
Bloody Pond and Williams' monument;" and noAV, 
although against Ine rules for one to pass another, 
it sometimes happens that the driver of a rear 
coach will drop a word that leads the passengers to 
think that he might be induced to pass the leading 
ones, and let them try the dust aAvhile. Soon an 
inducement is made up, and reluctantly (?) accepted 
by Jehu, when, curiously enough, something is 
very apt to happen to the leading coach that neces- 
sitates a stop, and the rear one goes on. The thing 
is a success, but somehow you feel like the Irish- 
man who shot the bird, and then bewailed the loss 
of the ammunition, as the fall itself would have 
killed it ; but be satisfied that if the purse had not 
been tendered no accident would have happened to 
the leaders. Verily telegraphy is a great science, 
and not confined entirely to wires either. 

And so it happened that, on a bright day in the 



i8 Lake George. 

summer of '72, with a gay party of pleasure seekers, 
we found ourselves perched on top of one of these 
stages, drawn by four spirited horses, and con- 
ducted by that autocrat of the road, the festive 
stage driver. We had the usual assortment in our 
load : the cockney Englishman, with note book in 
hand, making all sorts of inquiries about every 
thing, to write '' 'ome to the hold country;" the 
patrician young lady with eye-glasses, who im- 
pressed one with the idea that she looks^ as a gunner 
would fire a bomb-shell, at such an angle as would 
best annihilate you when it descended ; the young 
ladies, to whom every thing was ^' so nice " and 
*' jolly;" the aristocratic and high-toned young 
clerk, in faultless kids and paper cuffs, whose let- 
ters, for a month past, had come addressed to him 
at the Fort WiUiam Henry, where he was going to 
spend his year's salary in two weeks of first-class 
bliss ; the uncomfortable looking but proud mother, 
who, at the risk of her life, would persist in staying 
where she could admire her precocious offspring, 
just budding into delicate moustachehood, right 
from college, and consequently qualified and per- 
fectly Avilling to tell every body all about every 
thing ; the timid gentleman, with linen duster but- 
toned close up under the chin, hat planted on the 
back of his head, teeth tightly shut together, and 
hands franticall}' chitching the raihng of the coach 
as it swa3^ed from side to side, the very picture of 
determination, not to fall off, and with a large sort 
of grin on his phiz, as though he imagined he was 
making a heroic stand for life, while all the world 



On the Plank. 19 

gazed in wondering admiration, and trembled for 
the result. 

There was also the ancient victim of a young 
wife, who could see " nothing but damned nonsense 
in being jerked all over the country in all sorts of 
infernal machines, and at all hours of the day and 
night " — these and more ; but the life of the party 
was my friend — dry, droll Jack A. — who goes 
with us, and to whom I am indebted for much that 
is interesting in the following pages. 

As bows the stately goose to enter a sixteen-foot 
barn door, so ducked we as we passed under the 
toll-gate, then leaving the fair grounds (where moral 
individuals, who wouldn't be seen at a race course, 
attend the " agricultural horse show"), on the left, 
crossed the old half-way brook, and rumbling 
along the plain, toiled up the long hill. Pausing 
a moment on the summit, looked back down the 
road to the village, nearly three miles distant, 
over farms and wood and fields of waving grain, 
spread out beyond us, while away in the east the 
mountains of Vermont rose up blue and beauti- 
ful in the morning fight — then descended into the 
valley toward the north. 

As the horses came down to a walk at the foot 
of the hill on the further side, three or four ragged 
little boys dashed out from the corners of the fence, 
where they had '' laid " for us, and ran along by our 
side, while, propelled from their hands, bunches 
of beautiful white pond-lifiies, the most fragrant of 
all our northern flowers, shot upward, and describ- 
ing circles in the air, descended among us in a 
shower of sweetness. 



20 



Lake George. 



With ruddy cheeks, their e3'es glancing eagerly 
from one to another of the passengers, and with rim- 
less hats held invitingly up for stamps, these grinning 
little chaps bobbed and danced along by our side, 
until satisfied that they had secured all the plunder ; 
then retired in good order, to lay in wait for the next 
vehicle that should chance to come along. Their 
lillies come mostly from the marsh on the west 
of the road, the business being in the hands of 
two, who claim the hills on either side as their ter- 
ritory, by right of discovery, and of orginating the 
^P scheme. Imitating the old knights of 
j^the road, they wait for the coaches, 
where the nature of the ground com- 
pels them to go slow, then by 
a judicious cannonade of flow- 
ers compel a surrender 
of stamps — in this way, 
having picked up over 
six hundred dollars 




At our right is the ''^Albany Peat Works'' which 
must have been a paying investment to the 
originators of the scheme, who sold more shares 
than peat, until the impression went out that shares 



On the Plank. 



21 



was all they ever expected to sell, which naturally 
hurt the business some. Then a twin enterprise 
was started in the mountain about two miles to the 
north-west, the '^Corning Iron Mine,'' which was 
conceived and conducted by the same gigantic 
intellect, and now, stock in that great company is 
considered good at present quotations, as there 
isn't a chance for it to fall much lower. 

The strip of still water along the north side of 
the marsh is a branch of Long pond, which may 
be seen some distance away toward the east. 



THE HALF-WAY HOUSE. 

VERY perceptible straightening 
up of the driver's spinal column, a 
whole spelling-book full of letter s's 
in the air made by the long whip- 
lash, an extra dash of the horses, 
and we were brought up standing 
in front of the half-way house. 

'' Five minutes for refreshments !" 
said the driver, mentalty charging 
Brown the price of a cigar, which 
bill is always honored when pre- 
sented at the counter. 

The smiling landlord approached, rubbing his 

' bands gleefully. '' Step out, gentlemen," said he ; 

*' plenty of time while the horses are being watered. 

\ Get your ladies up a nice lemonade, milk punch, or 

any thing you want." 

Some of us took the lemonade plain, some with 
'stick" in it, and some took the ''stick'' plain. 




22 Lake George. 

George is noted for his lemonades, with or without 
lemons. 

^' What next, gentlemen ?" said he, as he poured 
the last glass out of the shiny tin shaker and wiped 
the honest sweat from his brow. Jack was very 
solemn as he said, in his most impressive style, " A 
glass of water, if you please, landlord." 

" Certainly, certainly ; right this way," briskly 
seizing hold of the ice pitcher. '' I dQ-clare I be- 
lieve the ice is all out," said he, shaking it, "and 
I guess the water is a ketle warm ; but I've got 
some first rate pop on ice." 

Of course the pop was ordered. But Jack saj's 
the normal condition of that pitcher is to be with- 
out ice about stage time. 

The Half-way House — four miles from the lake, 
near Williams' monument — boasts of a cabinet of 
Indian curiosities and relics picked up on the old 
battle grounds near by, a pond where good pickerel 
fishing is found, and especially noted for the game 
suppers, which nobody seem to know how to get 
up like " Brown," and without which no season or 
ride in that direction is considered complete. 

We examined the Indian relics, then w^ent out on 
the porch and sat down in one of the great arm 
chairs. A woman was crossing the road toward the 
barn, carrying something in a pail. Running ahead, 
around, on every side, of every size, age and color 
to be found in the extensive family, was a drove of 
about thirty cats ; and they allowed it wasn't much 
of a day for cats either. Kw aldermanic dog, in 
shape closely resembling a roll of butter, waddled 
out, and appeared as tickled to see us as it was 



The Half-way House. 23 

possible to express with his excessively abbre- 
viated narrative ; birds chirped and twittered con- 
tentedly in their cages on the flower-crowded porch, 
and, in short, every thing seemed so comfortable 
and well fed that we decided unanimously that 
" George Brown knew how to keep a hotel." 

Our timid friend was greatly interested in the 
flowers — smelled around until he got a bug in his 
nose ; then, in his frantic efforts to get it out, 
knocked over a vase of fuschias, stepped on the fat 
dog, and finally sat down on a very fine specimen 
of the cactus family. He didn't stay long — didn't 
take much thought as to his manner of going — 
but zue/it ! 

" All aboard !" sang out the driver. So aboard 
we all got, and away we went, bowing low as we 
passed through the old red toll-gate just north of 
the house. 

From Brown's northward, the road follows along 
the west side of a thickly wooded ravine, nearly 
midway between the top and bottom, winding in 
and out as the sides project or recedes from the 
center ; and this constant turning seems to excite 
such a spirit of emulation in the horses, that they 
need no urging, but go along at a swinging pace, re- 
vealing a constantly changing panorama of beauty, 
new objects coming into sight, sweet little bits of 
foreground and lovely vistas opening up to sur- 
prise and charm the eye that sparkles with excite- 
ment, and watches eagerly as each new picture is 
unfolded, until a sudden bend in the road brings us 
in sight of a sign, bearing the inscription of 
'' Williams Monument,'* 



24 Lake George. 

The apple tree to which the sign was attached 
appeared venerable enough, but did not answer to 
our idea of a monument. 

''Where is it?" 

" Up there among the bushes on the side hill," 
said the driver, jerking his head over his left 
shoulder. 

Looking, we saw a plain marble shaft, perhaps 
eight feet in height, white, clouded with blue, and 
standing on a huge boulder. 

'' What a lonesome place to be buried in." 

''Aivful pokey, I think, don't you?" said the 
young ladies, appealing to the nobby young man, 
who admitted that it was ^' hoivivid.'' 

" I say, driver, what was William what-his- 
name's object in locating in this outlandish place?" 
inquired Jack, innocently. 

" I guess he didn't have much to say about it, 
one way or t'other," said the driver, ''he was a 
Colonel or somethin', and fell by that ar rock." 

" Good gra-ciows, did it hurt him much," asked 
the astonished Jack, then, as the driver deigned no 
reply, save a look of pity for one so totally deficient 
in a knowledge of history, he concluded, philo- 
sophically, " I s'pose it must, though, for that's a 
pretty high stun to fall off of." 

" Te-he," remarked the young ladies. 

Our young college friend seemed on the point 
of bursting with suppressed knowledge, when a 
judicious question from the fond mother opened 
the gates, and we were flooded with information. 



Williams' Monument. 



25 




! 

i 



Williams' Monument 
was erected in 1854 by the 
graduates of Williams' Col- 
lege, in memory of the found- 
er of that institution. On it 
are inscriptions in Latin, to 
show the learning of those 
who erected it, and in En- 
ghsh, to show what it is all 
about ; from it we learn that 
it was " erected to the memory 
of Colonel Ephraim Williams, a native of New- 
town, Mass., who, after gallantly defending the fron- 
tiers of his native State, served U7tder General John- 
son against the French and India^ts, and nobly fell 
near this spot, in the bloody conflict of September 8, 
1755, in the ^2d year of his age. 

Some say that Williams received his death 
wound while standing on the rock, but it is not 
probable, for he knew too much about Indian 
fighting to expose himself thus unnecessarily ; he 
fell near by, however, and at the same time, a 
greater than he, — the old Mohawk Chief King 
Hendrick, who as he neglected to endow a col- 
lege, is seldom mentioned, in connection with the 
place. The old military road ran just above the 
rock. 

The country over which we are now passing is 
crowded with historic interest, and replete with 
wild legends of the past ; it is the ^'Dark and Bloody 
Ground ; " and on the day when Williams fell was 
one great battle field, over which the tide swept, 
carrying at its flood the victorious French even to 
3 



26 Lake George. 

the gates of the English camp at the Holy Lake, 
and ebbing bore them back, defeated, over the road 
that had witnessed their victorious advance of the 
morning. 




BLOODY POND. 

Fringed with birches and elms, flecked with lilly- 
pads, with here and there great creamy white and 
yellow Hlhes shining out of the dark green, seemed 
little in keeping with the history of the place. 
Again the watchful mother found it necessary to 
turn on the stream of knowledge, and we were 
informed that it derived its name from the fact 
that " during the revolutionary war the English 
killed fifteen hundred women and children, and 
threw their bodies into the pond, since which time 
the water has been the color of blood." 

''Perfectly awful !" said the young ladies. " Shock- 
ing!" said the swell young clerk, with a glance 



Bloody Pond. 27 

which gave them to understand that he would 
protect them in case the Eng-lishnien (who, just 
then, was looked upon as a member of a family 
of blood-thirsty cannibals) should show signs of 
approaching hunger ; but just in time to avert an 
approaching catastrophy, the driver dryly remarked 
that, " excepting the time, number and kind of folks 
interested, the young man was pretty near correct." 

The facts gathered are these : A party of the 
French, who (after driving the English into their for- 
tified camp at Lake George, and were in turn driven 
back), were seated around the pond at sunset, par- 
taking of their evening meal, when they were sur- 
prised by a party of English advancing from Fort 
Edward, who poured in upon them a destructive 
fire. The French, totally routed, fled in confusion, 
leaving their dead and wounded on the field, and 
their blood mingling with the water is said to have 
turned it red, from which circumstance it received 
its name. Here we reach the highest point in our 
ride, and soon we see gleaming through the trees 
Horican, "the silvery water," a pearl in one of 
Nature's grandest settings of emerald, and beauti- 
ful beyond description. The first full view of the 
lake is obtained when about a mile distant, and 
here, my gushing friends, is one of the places 
where you may go into vmlimited paroxysms of 
ecstacy without fear of pihng it on too thick, or 
overdoing the matter in the least. 

From where the road winds around the hill, 
down to the border of the lake, is a mile of 
checkered field and wood ; in the center, hidden in 
the grove of pines that line the shore, are the grass- 



28 Lake George. 

grown ruins of Fort George. On the right, across 
the valley, is French mountain, sloping down to the 
lake, where, at the point, is '' Crosbyside." On the 
west, under the shadow of Mount Prospect, lies 
the little village of Caldwell. A little nearer, and 
covered with stately pines, are the ruins of Fort 
William Henry ; close beside them the hotel bear- 
ing the same name. On the high land west of Fort 
George was the old entrenched camp, to which the 
English fled when pursued by Dieskau. Beyond, 
toward the north, the lake stretches away, dotted 
Avith verdant islands and hemmed in by mountains 
that seem to approach each other, until the way is 
blocked by the misty, dome-like form of Tongue 
mountain. 

As we wind around the side and cross a little 
gully the road makes a sudden turn to the right, 
and runs away nearly straight, with a descending 
grade. Here on the left is quite a high hill, on the 
summit of which are the remains of Fort Gage. 
At the time of Abercrombie's advance this slope 
was clear to the water's edge ; and here, one bright 
day, while awaiting the order to advance, a party 
of scouts played at the New England game of 
''jumping the stick," and, among others, Putnam, 
Stark and Lord Howe, the latter jumping high- 
est of them all.'^ Down the long grade, across 
the hedge, up the little hill, through the arched 
gateway, around the graveled carriage road, we 
go at a slashing pace, and bringing up in front of 
the Fort William Henry, are received by a brigade 

* Bean. 



The Fort William Henry. 29 

of uniformed gentlemen from Africa, who appear 
wonderfully pleased to see us, and whose desire to 
be of assistance is touching to behold ; they charge 
in battalions from below, they swoop down on us 
from above ; they pounce on innocent satchels, 
gobble up stray bundles, surround defenceless hat 
boxes, and invest unsuspecting dusters with a 
cordon of sooty hands ; they entrench themselves 
in front of harmless waterproofs, forage for um- 
brellas and canes, and there is no danger of their 
overlooking an article which, if it can be divided, 
is fair game for two. Of course they are actuated 
only by a laudable desire to be of assistance, and 
when the pleasant face appears, accompanied by 
the missing article, it will prove conclusively that 
your heart is not in the right place if you can stand 
the mute appeal to your pockets and allow the 
aforementioned face to disappear without the cus- 
tomary '' scale." And right here let me remark 
that Lake George, like watering places in general, 
is a '' scaly " place ; even the fish caught are often 
found covered with them. We endure the ordeal 
of alighting under fire of a hundred pairs of eyes, 
pass in review before the reception committee — 
which is a committee of the whole — register and 
retire to recuperate, while the committee on creden- 
tials goes up to the big book, to find out who we 
are and where we came from. 




LAKE GEORGE. 

AKE George is conveniently situated 
near the Fort William Henry Hotel, 
and we have reason to rejoice that a 
wise Providence placed it where guests 
of this popular house can have the op- 
portunity of beholding its beauties with- 
out too much exertion, as it is considered by 
some really very fine, and adding very much to 
the interest of the trip. 

It was written about in 1609, by Champlain, but 
the first white man known to have seen it was 
Father Jogues, a French priest, who, accompanied 
by Jean Bourdon, arrived at the north end on the 
29th of May, 1649, and it being on the eve of the 
festival of Corpus Christi, he, in commemoration 
of the day, called it Lac du St. Sacrament, 

Different tribes gave it different names. Father 
Jogues called it by its Iroquois name, Andia-ta- 
rock-te, ''place where the lake closes." 

In 1755 General Johnson changed its name to 
Lake George, in honor of one George the Second, 
an Englishman, who, living on a little island just 
off the coast of Ireland, at that time, proposed to 
keep America for a summer residence, but his suc- 
cessors had a little difficulty in collecting rents in 
1776, and gave it up as a bad job. 

HORICAN, the "silvery water," was simply a 
fancy of Cooper's, He says : " It occurred to me 
that the French name of this lake was too comph- 
cated, the American too common-place, and the In- 



Lake George. 31 

dian too unpronounceable, for either to be used famil- 
iarly in a work of fiction," so he called it Horican. 

It is a Httle over thirty-three miles long, running 
north and south, nearly four wide at the broadest 
place, surrounded by high mountains ; drains but 
little territory, and is fed by brooks from the moun- 
tain sides, and springs coming up from the bottom. 
It is nearly three hundred feet above tide-water, 
and two hundred and forty above Lake Cham plain, 
into which it empties. It is said to contain three 
hundred and sixty-five islands, one for each day of 
the year ; and one accommodating little fellow, w^ho 
goes and comes every four years, that the twenty- 
ninth of February need not feel slighted."^ 

The air is cool and bracing, especially in the win- 
ter. Fishing is, as a general thing, good — and easy. 
Fishermen are constantly looking for the best 
ground, which, I find by referring to the reliable 
guide books, are near the largest hotels. This winter 
(1872-3) there has been an addition made in shape 
of a quantity of baby salmon from Seth Green's 
nursery, and it is confidently expected that, in the 
course of two or three years, they will be large 
enough to be seen by the naked eye. 

* " Have photographed, it, and, if modesty did not prevent my telling the 
truth, should say that, like all of my work, it is excellent." S. R, Stoddard. 

" Most genuine." J. Orcut. 

" Caught a whale on it once." Dr. Gumbs, 

" Have discovered it several times just below the surface ; always getting in 
my way." Capt. A. Hulett. 

'' Leap-year periodical ; just out ; ten cents." B. S, Cowles, Partial Proprie- 
tor Picture and Paper Stand. 

" Beats my relics." E. J. Gale. 

'' Most wonderful thing at Lake George — next to my palace." T. Roessle. 

" An excresence on the bosom of Horican, superinduced by an acute attack 
of figure fours." Dr. Dowlikg, 

'~ Anchored in ninety feet of water at night, and found the ' Owl' high and 
drv on it in the morning. Fact." Capt. Lee Harris. 

" Trout wear their horns off on it." Cronkhite, Landlord Trout Pavilion, 
and a host of others equally veracious. 



32 Lake George. 

LO! THE POOR INDIAN. 

*' A remnant of the once mighty race of Mohicans 
still lingers ;" they are given to lingering ; they pre- 
fer it to any thing else ; their wigwams are found 
in the borders of the forest, just west of the 
entrance to the Fort William Henry grounds. Six 
or seven families, in all, from the home of the St. 
Francis Indians in Lower Canada, coming in the 
spring and usually returning with the frosts; de- 
scendants of the Abenakis — " O-den-a/i-keh. " — they 
will tell you, and pure blood at that. Every body 
goes to see them, and so we went. We found " the 
ancient arrow maker," Lewis Watsaw, who was 
ninety-two years old last summer, and will be a 
hundred next ; split splints with fat, good natured 
Madam Powkett ; watched a half-dozen Indian 
blossoms wallow, like a brood of chickens, in the 
sun- warmed sand. We even tried our hand at Indian 
archery, to the imminent danger of every thing 
else but the target ; then wandered around, hoping 
to catch a glimpse of that wondrously beautiful 
Indian maiden, whom we remembered seeing a 
picture of once, clothed mostly in an elegant bead 
necklace. At last we were told where we would 
probably find the object of our search, and thither 
we repaired. Shades of the immortal Cooper! 
what an awakening ! the Avild flower of the forest 
in a dolly varden and a ten pound waterfall ! We 
crept sadly away, and that night, at the hour when 
spirits walk, there was a funeral ; " the last of the 
Mohicans " was laid tenderly away, ^' and no man 
knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day." 




CALDWELL. 

The village was named after 
Gen. James Caldwell. The name 
of the post-office has recently been 
changed to" Lake George," which 
causes some little confusion, as 
that was the name once given 
the head of which the village 



38 



Lake George. 



is situated. Some envious people, who live further 
down, think that it was assuming considerable for 
Caldwell folks to arrogate to themselves thirty-four 
miles of water when they drink so little ; but they 
ought to feel thankful that the originators of the 
idea did not call it United States, which would 
have necessitated a change in the name of the 
great confederation ; or, that failing, been the cause 
of serious, if not fatal, confusion among foreigners. 




The Lake House is the largest hotel in the 
village, and built on the oldest hotel site at the lake. 
It is three hundred feet long, three stories high, 
with front and back piazzas. From the house a 
lovely tree-covered lawn slopes down to the water's 
edge, while the front is shaded by a fine double row 
of maples. On the grounds are three pretty cot- 
tages. All the steamboats touch at the dock, and 
stages leave the door, connecting with all trains. 
In the house is a barber shop ; within the general 
office, a book and paper stand, a telegraph office, 
and a magnificent collection of relics, consisting of 
a piece of bomb shell, Indian pestle, and a tumbler 
of tooth-picks. The hotel is open for the reception 
of guests from May to November. 

Connected with the hotel is the livery and board- 
ing stables of Jenkins & Burgess, where every 
thing found in a first-class establishment may be 
obtained at reasonable rates, for the proprietors are 
first-class and reasonable fellows themselves. 

The Harris House, between the lake house and 
post-office, is new, well liked, and partakes more 
of the character of a select boarding house, having 
accommodations for about forty guests. The ICE- 
CREAM PARLORS connected with it are models of 



40 Lake George. 

neatness, chaste and inviting-, and furnished with all 
kinds of confectionery, ices, and that delicious 
fizzing combination of wind and sweetness, known 
as soda water. 

The Central Hotel, opposite the court house, 
is kept by T. G. Hoyt, well and favorably known 
among sportsmen as the landlord of the "Adiron- 
dack House " at Warrensburgh, and in his new role 
of catering to tourists and summer boarders gener- 
ally, they may rest assured that he will fully sus- 
tain the reputation already won of a well-served 
table, supplied with all the luxuries of the season. 

At the south end of the village is " Carpenter's 
Hotel," also open the year round, which, with 
several private families who take '' city boarders," 
constitute the accommodations for the class spoken 
of; two churches — Presbyterian and Episcopal; 
three or four stores, where any thing in a small 
way, from a bustle to a banjo, may be obtained ; 
post-office ; the stately court-house, with cells in 
the cellar ; two pumps, and Harve. CrandelFs 
palatial blacksmithing establishment constitute the 
other attractions of this noted place. 

While tourists blossom on every hillside Lake 
George presents a lively appearance ; but when the 
source of revenue is removed and cold winter sets 
in, it is said that the inhabitants imitate the example 
of bruin, who retires to some den and sucks his 
claws until awakened by the breath of spring, 
when he wanders forth, seeking whom he may 
devour. 







CROSBYSIDE. 



^' Ia -\ Right across the lake from Cald- 
'^' '" well is what was once known as the 
" United States Hotel," now '' Crosbyside." 
Beside the hotel proper, lately enlarged and 
improved, there are three cottages, which, with the 
summer houses and outbuildings, look like some 
pretty little village among the grand old trees that 
cover the point. As we approach, an air of intense 
respectability is wafted toward us from the shore, 
for you must know that Crosbyside is immense in 
that direction, numbering among its guests supreme 
court judges, D. D's, Japanese princes and escaped 
editors, which would be rather strong society for 
the average touring mortal if the balance of power 
was not retained on the world's side by the bevy 
of {jolly is the word, I think) young ladies who are 
annually banished from cit}^ homes by confiding 
mothers, satisfied that they will be safe with Mrs. 
4 



42 Lake George. 

Crosby (who seems especially designed by Nature 
to bring up girls in the proper way); by young 
men attracted by said young ladies, and by a few 
who come for the pure air, the delightful views, the 
sense of freedom that seems to go with the place ; 
and last, but not least, the bountifully supplied 
table, made very inviting by its crisp purity and 
dainty niceness. The house, as well as the broad, 
comfortable looking piazza and grounds, impresses 
one with its cool, roomy sort of look ; and, although 
open to all, on account of its retired situation, it 
gets but few '' transients," assuming more the 
appearance of a great home, to which familiar 
faces come year after year ; while the pleasant face 
of the silver-haired proprietor makes you feel to 
" bid farewell to every fear — " and register at once. 
Crosby side has capacity for accommodating about 
two hundred guests. A drive of a little more than 
a mile through the woods and across the beach con- 
nects it with Caldwell. All the steamers touch at 
the dock. The *' Telegraph," a fast barge, con- 
ducted by two experienced old salts, runs hourly 
to and from Caldwell, carrying passengers and 
mails ; and on the Sabbath every body goes over 
to the village on the ''Owl" to attend church, 
listen to the magnificent choir, and see what the 
folks have on who come from the hotels. 




FORT WILLIAM HENRY. 

Just east of the hotel, of the same name, 
under the pines, are the ruins of the old 
Fort. The outhne is well preserved, show- 
ing- the form, nearly square, flanked on the 
west, south and a part of the east side, by a 
ditch, on the north by the Lake. It was 
built in 1755 by General Johnson, and cap- 
tured by the French, under Montcalm, 
August 8, 1757. Putnam, who arrived as the French 
were retreating down the lake, describes the scene 
as horrible in the extreme, the air filled with the 
stench of decaying bodies and burning flesh which 
had been thrown among the still smoking ruins — 
for the French buined whatever they could not 
carry off". They could not steal or burn the '' Old 
Fort Well," however, and it still remains near the 
east side, partialy filled with stones and rubbish. 



THE GARRISON. 

The garrison at present consists of one black boy 
in command of a brass field-piece, which belches 
forth its welcome to the ''Minne-ha-ha" on her arrival 
nightly. Here game abounds, and an opportunity is 
afforded to send missiles of death hurhng through the 
affrighted air at sheet- 
iron birds for two and 
one-half cents per pop. 

Just where the fence 
which now encloses the 
grounds on the east, 
would run, if contin- 
ued out into the lake, 
under water, is the old 
French dock ; out from( 
the dock a little way,, 
may be seen, on a still : 
day, the charred re-: 
mains of an old hulk,« 
her blackened ribs and: 
keel half hidden in the 
sand. It appears to be 
about 40 feet in length, the garrison. 

supposed to have been one of the number destroyed 
by Vaudreuil, in February, 1757. Shell and can- 
non balls have been taken away at different times, 
and, in 1820, two small cannon were removed 
from the wreck. 




FORT GEORGE. 

One day Jack and I climbed over the rude stile, 
east of Fort William Henry, waded through the half 
mile or so of sand, and went up the road to where 
we were told the ruins of Fort George were situ- 
ated. At last we found them, on the east side of the 
road, near Dr. Bowling's cottage, and, seating our- 
selves on the walls, " read up " in the history of 
the old fortress. 




It was built 1759 by General Amherst, a good 
general, but rather given to shoveling. The present 
ruins is but a bastion of what, at the time, was 
designed for an extensive fortification. Although on 
an elevated piece of ground, it is commanded by 
others near by, and would not have been thought 
of at the present day, but in those times they had 
faith in the absent-mindedness of the enemy, who 
were expected to march regularly up to the places 
prepared for their reception, as was eminently 
proper for them to do, and much easier than cut- 



46 Lake George. 

ting roads through the forests, or hauling heavy 
guns to the tops of mountains. 

On the table land, a little to the south-east of the 
fort, was the old entrenched camp, the scene oi 
Dieskau's defeat by General Johnson in 1755. To 
the west was old Fort William Henry. 

It was a lovely afternoon when we sat on the 
ruined wall, gazing out over the stretch of reedy 
flats, gleaming sand and rippling water. The sun 
was sinking in crimson glory among the clouds 
that rested on old Mount Prospect. Purple 
shadows chased each other over the golden beach 
and up the mountainside ; flies buzzed lazily through 
the air ; bees droned among the flowers, and the 
music of rippling waves came faintly to our ears. 

"And is this all that remains of the once proud 
fortress," said Jack impressively. " Battlements 
crumbling, strong walls falling and wasting away, 
before the great destroyer, Time. Perhaps, in olden 
times, a soldier has stood on this very spot, and 
gazed out on just such a glorious sunset as this — 
his heart filled with thoughts of a distant home, 
and yearning to clasp the forms of loved ones to his 
bosom, little dreaming that, before the sun should 
make another circuit of the heavens, he would 
sleep the sleep of the soldier out under the daisy- 
gemmed sod, where weeping violets, bending sadly 
over — " 

He paused — near by stood three or four ragged 
little villains, grinning horribly, and making 
observations in a very disrespectful sort of way. 

" Gamin avaunt," said Jack, with a threatening 
air. They didn't seem inclined to do it, but con- 



Fort George. 47 

tinued'to cut antics, in the most extraordinary and 
exasperating manner conceivable. 

'* Poor feller," said one, with a grin that opened 
an unbroken line of communication between his 
ears by way of his mouth. 

"Got it bad, ain't he, ruther?" remarked a 
second. 

" Tooken sudden, Hke," said number three, with a 
horrible distortion of his face — intended for a 
wink ; " but he ain't the first darn fool that's made 
a pious show ov 'imself on top ov that ar old lime- 
kill." 

We were suddenly impressed with a conviction 
that we were liable to become victims of sunstroke, 
especially as a feeling of undue warmth spread over 
us, so we hastily sought the protection of the 
woods back of the ruins, followed by a series of 
yells that would have done credit to a whole tribe 
of Modocs. 

In making a circuit among the pines, and, juni- 
pers, Ave ran across the ruins — real ruins this time 
of the old fort — now but a great heap of earth 
sloping off from the edge to the center and north, 
and held in place by the walls, which are quite well 
preserved on the east side. A great share of the 
stone work has been removed, and burned for lime, 
at the scene of our late encounter with the young 
heathen. We soon went back to the hotel, around 
the road, nearly a mile further, because these hor- 
rid animals were on the beach — apparently lying 
in wait for some one, and we had reason to believe 
that we were the objects of their attentions. 




48 Lake George. 



THE HISTORIAN RISES TO EXPLAIN. 

^N 1609 Hendrick Hudson ascended the 
North river to its junction with the Mo- 
hawk, and Champlain sailed as far south 
as Ticonderoga, on the lake which now 
bears his name. Each nation, under whose 
flags the two men sailed — the French and 
Dutch — laid claim to the country dis- 
covered, it being an estabhshed rule among nations 
that Avhoever first planted the arms of their govern- 
ment on aboriginal soil thereby acquired that coun- 
try for their respective sovereigns. It was inhab- 
ited at that time by the Algonquins occupying the 
country north of the St. Lawrence, while all the 
country south was claimed by the Five Nations — 
a powerful confederacy, consisting of the Mohawks 
Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas. They 
called themselves Aganuschiori, or '' united people ;" 
by the Delawares they were called Mingoes ; by the 
French, Iroquois ; and by the Dutch, Maqiias. 

The Enghsh claimed the country of this great 
people by virtue of a treaty with them, by which, 
in consideration of his protection, they submitted 
to the sovereignty of the king of Great Britain. 

Both nations aimed to keep the friendship of the 
Indian tribes, in which the French met with the 
greatest success, constantly extending their lines, 
while missionaries (the Jesuits) went out among the 
red men preaching religion, and urging them to 
become christians, murder the English, and be 
saved. Time passed, and still the beautiful coun- 



The Historian Rises to Explain. 49 

try along the shores of St. Sacrament and Cham- 
plain was an unbroken solitude, for the lakes, 
stretching to the north and south, formed a path- 
way through the wilderness, and nations were con- 
stantly going out to war against each other, laying 
waste every thing in their path ; this had driven 
all who were inclined to occupy the country beyond 
the mountains for protection; and this is why it 
received its Indian name, signifying '' the lake that 
is the gate of the country." 

In 173 1, while the nations were at peace, the 
French advanced to Crown Point and built a fort, 
which they called "St. Frederick." The English 
remonstrated, but took no active measures to resist 
this encroachment on their soil, while parties of 
Indians gathered around, and, instigated by the 
French, fell upon exposed homes of settlers, '' struck 
a blow and returned with some scalps." 

To properly understand the movements of the 
armies operating against each other, it is well to 
take a glance at the topography of the country. 




50 



Lake George. 




WAY north, high up among the 
Adirondacks, the Hudson starts 
on its journey, and, fed by tribu- 
tary streams, advances toward 
the south, until turning east- 
ward it breaks through the 
Luzerne mountains ; then pro- 
ceeding quietly along through 
meadow and wood it approach- 
es and takes the leap down the 
rocks at Glen's Falls ; thence, 
circling around past Ft. Edward, 
goes southward to the sea. Nine miles north of 
the ''big bend" is the southern end or head of 
Lake George, whose waters flow to the north, 
emptying into Champlain, where stands the old 
promontory of Ticonderoga. South from this, run- 
ning nearly parallel with Lake George, extends 
what, in old times, was called Wood creek, at the 
head of which, twenty-five miles distant, stood 
Skeensborough, now Whitehall. 

From Fort Edward to Lake George the carrying 
distance was fourteen miles — to Skeensborough a 
little over twenty — which was reduced to less 
than a mile by going up Fort Edward creek and 
down Wood creek in small boats. Still, of the two 
routes, the first was usually preferred. 

The peculiar position of the country, with the 
difficulty of transporting men and stores, led to the 
general adoption of the Indian style of warfare — a 
sudden descent on some unprotected point ; a rifle 
shot, a gleaming knife or bloody tomahawk, and a 
retreat by the light of a burning building. 




BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE. 

^ 1755 the English felt that something 
must be done, and, on the twenty-eighth 
of August, General Johnson, at the head 
of his army, marched to Lac dii St. Sacra- 
incut, at that time changing its name to 
Lake George. Said he, "I propose to go 
down this lake with a part of the army, 
and take post at the end of it, at a pass called 
*' Ticonderogue," there to await the coming up of 
the rest of the army, and then attack Crown Point." 
His intention was good, but while he w^as pre- 
paring to move, the Baron Dieskau, with fourteen 
hundred men, six hundred of whom were Indians, 
advanced to attack Fort Lyman ; but, when within 
four miles of the fort, the Indians refused to pro- 
ceed further, it is thought, from their known fear 
of cannon. In consequence of this the head of the 
army was turned toward Lake George, and had 
reached the place Avhere Williams' monument now 
stands, when news was brought that the English 
were advancing to meet them. Hastily forming in 
shape of a hollow square, open toward the north, 
the points extending on each side of the road, they 
awaited their coming. Soon they appeared — one 
thousand English and two hundred Indians — under 
Col. Ephraim Williams and old King Hendrick, 
all unconscious of impending danger, so sure were 
they that the enemy was at Fort Edward. 

It happened that among Dieskau's Indians were 
some of the great league of the Iroquois, who, see- 



52 Lake George. 

ing that the Enghsh were accompanied by a party 
of their sworn friends (the Mohawks), fired guns in 
the air as a warning, and, by this act, turned what 
might have been the annihilation of the detachment 
into simply a bad defeat. The French opened fire 
at once, killing Williams and King Hendrick, who, 
on account of his age and infirmities, was riding on 
one of Johnson's horses. The English retreated, 
followed by the French. Hearing the firing, a 
body of 300 men was dispatched to their assist- 
ance, and a breastwork of fallen trees formed in 
front of the camp at Lake George. Soon came the 
English, in confusion, closely pursued by the 
French, on whom the guns could not be brought 
to bear, without injuring friend and foe alike. It 
appeared to be Dieskau's object to keep thus close 
on the heels of the retreating English, and enter 
the fortified camp with them, but as, with joyful 
shouts, the survivors tumbled over the logs, among 
their friends, they, with wonder, beheld the French 
stop when almost up to the Hues, while the Indians 
skulked in the swamps. The pause of the French 
was of a few minutes only, but it afforded the Eng- 
hsh time to perfect their plans of defense, and when 
the enemy did advance they were received by a 
well-worked battery. The engagement commenced 
a little before noon, and lasted until about four 
o'clock, when the enemy retreated, pursued by the 
English and Indians. Dieskau was wounded and 
taken prisoner, afterward dying, it is said, from -the 
effect of his wounds. Johnson was also wounded 
early in the engagement, and the command de- 
volved on General Lyman, who behaved with 



Battle of Lake George. 53 

unexceptionable bravery throughout the entire 
engagement. 

At sunset a party of the French who had halted 
at Bloody Pond were surprised and routed by a 
party of English coming from Fort Edward. The 
French loss, killed and wovmded, was pearly 400 
men ; the English about 300. Thus ended the 
triune battle of Lake George, September 8, 1755 ; 
small in the number engaged, but great in its effect 
on the country, for here was the turning point of 
the great tidal wave that eventually swept over the 
entire country, brushing the power of France from 
the continent. Johnson having earned glory enough 
for one season, the remainder of it was spent in 
building Fort William Henry. 

In March, 1757, Vaudreuil, with 1,500 French 
and Indians, came over the ice to attack Fort Wil- 
Ham Henry. At two o'clock on the morning of the 
19th, he approached, hoping to surprise the gar- 
rison, but failed ; he succeeded, however, in burn- 
ing every thing outside of the Fort, including a 
number of sloops and batteaux that were frozen in 
the ice. 





54 Lake George. 

CAPTURE OF FORT WILLIAM HENRY. 

T THE beginning of August, Mont- 
calm, with nearly 8,000 French and 
Indians, advanced on Fort William 
Henry, which is described as square, 
built of pine logs, covered with sand, 
flanked by four bastions, and sur- 
rounded by a ditch. 

On the morning of the 9th, Col. Monroe, having 
withstood the siege six days, and seeing no hope of 
relief from Webb, sent a messenger to Montcalm, 
stating the terms on which he would surrender, 
which substantially were that the English should 
be allowed to march out with the honors of war, 
carrying their arms and baggage. These terms were 
agreed to, and at twelve the next day they marched 
over to the entrenched camp, there to remain until 
the following morning, leaving the sick and wounded 
under the protection of the French general ; but, 
even while they were passing out, the Indians 
swarmed in through the embrasures, murdering the 
sick and helpless. Robaud says : " I saw one of these 
barbarians come forth out of the casements, which 
nothing but the most insatiate avidity for blood 
could induce him to enter, for the infected atmos- 
phere which exhaled from it was insupportable, 
carrying in his hand a human head, from which 
streams of blood were flowing, and which he 
paraded as the most valuable prize he had been able 
to seize." 

Morning found the English ready to march, and, 
as they filed out, protected by f/iree hundred French, 



The Massacre. 55 

the insufficiency of their escort became startingly 
apparent. The savages swarmed in the woods on 
every side, and hung like a dark storm-cloud along 
their path ; low, ominous muttering, like distant 
thunder, came from the surging, jostling crowd, 
gradually rising higher and higher, until, with 
fierce yells, they fell on the panic-stricken English, 
striking them down in the very face of their helpless 
guard. The great number of women and children 
accompanying the men increased the terror of 
the scene. Soon all semblance of order ceased, and 
the march changed to a selfish race for life. The 
butchery, which at first Avas the work of a few, soon 
became general. They even tore men from the 
ranks, and, like savage, wild beasts, fought among 
themselves for the sickening prize of a human scalp. 

Some have attempted to exonerate Montcalm 
from blame, but he knew the nature of the savages, 
saw their treatment of the sick and wounded in the 
old fort the day before, and still on the morning of 
the massacre, w^th 6,000 French at command, sent 
only 300 to protect that long line of men, women 
and children from the wild beasts, thirsting for 
their blood. The number that perished is unknown, 
but has been estimated by some as high as 1,500. 

Their object accomplished, the French returned 
from whence they came, leaving the old fort a heap 
of smouldering ruins, and the bones of the English 
bleaching in the sun; the sweetly solemn music 
of the waves, rippling on the white beach below, 
and the sad sighing of the wind among the pines, 
their only requiem — then solitude reigned once 
more on the shores of the tideless lake. 



56 



Lake George. 



RINGING THE CHANGES. 




great drama 



NOTHER act in the 
of earth. A year has passed aAvay, 
and the curtain rises on a scene of 
wondrous beauty. The same old 
mountains slope down, amphithea- 
ter-like, around the lake ; the mists 
of midsummer hang over the land ; 
martial music fills the air, and large 
bodies of men, under the banner of 
Abercrombie, are marching through 
the Avoods ; the sound of many 
bugles and of highland pipes echo back from the 
mountain side, as a thousand boats, bearing fifteen 
thousand men, in all the varied colors of military 
pomp, of royal court of clan and forest, with ban- 
ners Avaving, and hearts beating high Avith hope, 
move away over the glassy lake. Not as they Avent 
Avill they return, but sadly bearing their precious 
dead — yesterday, croAvned Avith laurel ; to day, Avith 
asphodels — Avith banners trailing, and the sound of 
mourning for comrades lying in the forests and 
under the battlements of Ticonderoga. 

The folloAving year Amherst passed through the 
lake, capturing Ticonderoga and CroAvn Point, thus 
driving the French into Canada, their hold on the 
lakes gone forcA^er. 





STEAMBOATS. 

HERE has been eleven steamboats on 
Lake George, first, the James Cald- 
well, Captain Wixans, commanding ; 
put upon the lake about 1816 to '20. It 
had two long boilers and a brick smoke, 
stack, and could go the entire length 
of the lake in one day — nearly, if not 
quite, as quick as a smart man would row the dis- 
tance ; but this stupendous achievement of engineer- 
ing skill could never have been attained without 
the connivance of the evil one, so it was very prop- 
erly struck by lightning on one of its earty trips ; 
and, as even this warning did not prevent the stiff- 
necked owners from attempting to run her the 
second year, she was ver}^ mysteriously burned — 
with fire — while lying at her dock at Caldwell. It 
was thought, however, that she caught fire from 
over-insurance. 

The next boat that kissed the wave was the 
Mountaineer, commanded by Captain Laribee, 
and built about 1824. This boat, it is said, was 
sided with three layers of boards : the first running 
fore and aft, the second from keel to wale, then a 
layer of tarred paper ; and the outer boards, running 
fore and aft again, all fastened together with wooden 
pins, making a very strong basket-like boat, which, 
when the waves ran high, would bend and twist 
about in a way that eels might envy and vainly 
strive to imitate. This also required nearly the 
whole day to make the length of the lake; and 
while her commander, out of gallantry to the 



58 Lake George. 

ladies, would " slow up " to take one aboard, it was 
considered an unwarrantable loss of time to stop 
for a man, as any good oarsman could row out and 
put a passenger into the steamer's yawl, which was 
always towing behind, without interfering with her 
headway in the least. The passenger in the yawl 
could then pull up by the tow-line and climb on to 
the steamer's deck Avithout much trouble. She ran 
until 1836. 

In 1838 the William Caldwell came on and 
ran until 1850, when the John Jay, Capt. J. Gale, 
took her place, running until 1856, when, on the 
twenty-ninth of July of that year, as she was 
passing Friend's Point, on the home trip, a fire broke 
out in the engine room, and spread so rapidly that 
they could not hope to save her. Rounding Walto- 
nian Isle the bow was pointed toward the shore, 
the intention being to run her on the beach a little 
north of Hague. Capt. E. S. Harris, then pilot, 
stood at the wheel until the tiller ropes burned off, 
then going aft shipped the tiller and steered by 
guess. Bhnded by the smoke they missed the 
beach, struck on a rock and rebounding, slid back 
into deep water, where it burned down and sunk. 
Nine lives were lost on this occasion. 

A young man, living there, threw off his outer 
clothing, saved six persons from the burning vessel, 
and while he was doing it some public spirited 
person stole his watch. 

'' Old Dick," who, for several years, wandered 
up and down the lake, with his box of '' Rattell 
Snaicks," at ''sixpents site," was aboard when the 
fire broke out. The box containing the '' snaicks " 



Steamboats. 59 

was washed ashore, with a little girl clinging to 
one end, while, from the trap-door at the other, 
Avhich had become unfastened, the heads of the 
reptiles were lifted up, swaying and moving about 
as they were tossed by the waves, and as the box 
touched the shore they glided over the side, across 
the beach, and disappeared in the thicket. 

In 1857 the Minnehaha commenced, and has 
run ever since ; beside these, there has been the 
steam yachts " Hiawatha," the " Alice," and the 
'' Dodo," the latter owned by J. Buchanan Henry, 
Private Secretary to the Presidential " Buck." 
Also, the '' HoRiCAN," a propeller, something 
smaller than the Ganouskie, latelv taken overland 
to Lake Champlain. At present there are four : 

The Minnehaha (laughing water), side-wheel 
steamer, built in 1857; 4 feet draft; length, 144 
feet; breadth, beam, 22 feet; over all, 36 feet. 

The Ganouskie (Indian name of northwest bay), 
screw propeller, built in 1869; 7 feet draft; length, 
72 feet ; beam, 20 feet. 

The LiLLiE M. Price (named after a httle 
daughter of Col. W. W. Price), screw propeller, 
built in I871 ; 6 feet draft; length, 61 feet; beam, 
14 feet. 

The '' Owl," screw propeller (pocket edition), 
brought up the Hudson in 1871 ; draft, 3 feet 6 
inches ; length, 30 feet ; beam, 7 feet. 

There are several lighters for carrying wood, 
yachts for hire, and a large fleet of skiffs, mostly of 
the kind called " Whitehall." The prices are gen- 
erally : for a boat, one hour, fifty cents; day, $1.00 
to $2.00; week, $6.00 to $10.00, Man and boat. 



6o Lake George. 

one hour, $i.oo; day, $3.00 to $4.00, subject to 
variation, according to season and circiirnstaiices. 

Fishermen have from $3.00 to $4.00 per day, fur- 
nishing boat and every thing necessar}'- for the 
sport, and, to be assured of any success, it Avill be 
necessary to have one along who knows the ground. 

The course usually pursued is to go to the nar- 
rows on the Minnehaha, towing a small boat be- 
hind. The captain is always willing to accomodate, 
letting passengers off, or taking them aboard, at 
any point in the steamer's course. The sportsman 
is expected, however, to pay fare to the first landing 
beyond, with an additional 50 cents for towing the 
boat. 

The State being afflicted with a game law, it will 
be perceived that it is not proper to do some things 
at all times, but every thing in its season. 

The time for taking brook trout, is from March 
15 to September 15. 

Salmon trout, March i to October i. 

Black bass and muscallonge, May i to January i . 

Season for shooting duck, goose, brant, Sept. i to 
May I ; woodcock, July 1 5 to Feb i ; quail, Oct. 20 
to Jan. i; ruffed grouse or partridge, Sept. i to Jan. i. 

Season for shooting deer, Aug. i to Dec. i. 

No trespassing on lands without permission, nor 
shooting on Sunday. 

There is no law against shooting bears, which 
was probably an oversight, but those found guilty 
of taking muscallonge, moose or caribou at Lake 
George will be severely dealt with, as the law is 
very strict on these points, and the game constables 
are always on the warpath. 



Excursions. 6i 

The great excursion of the season is the round 
trip to Lake Champlain, passing through Lake 
George on the morning boat, overland by Bald- 
win's line of stages, taking dinner at the Fort Ticon- 
deroga hotel, and a stroll among the ruins ; then 
an afternoon ride on one of the elegant Champlain 
steamers, through twenty-five miles of the loveliest 
scenery to be found in northern New York, to 
Whitehall ; thence by rail to Glen's Falls and back 
to Caldwell b}^ the regular stage, arriving at lo P. M.; 
and those who miss this excursion in 1873 will 
probabl}' never be afforded the opportunity of 
taking it, for, when the railroad — now being built 
from Ticonderoga to Whitehall — is completed, the 
boats will run no further south than the old fort. 

DRIVES. 

Half-way house, plank road, - - - 4 miles. 
Warrensburgh plank road, - - - 6 " 
Luzerne, countr}- road (fine), - - - 12 " 
Bolton, lake shore road (a lovely drive), 9 " 
'' Healing spring," - - - - si " 

A talk with the funny proprietor, '^ Uncle Joe," 
will pay. 
Prospect Mountain House (a lively ride). 





62 Lake George. 

TABLE OF DISTANCES. 

UT few can realize the trouble encoun- 
tered in trying to learn any thing at 
Lake George until they try it. I 
don't mean to say that you cannot 
get answers to all questions asked, 
but every body is so independent 
that they get most of their knowledge by personal 
observation or by guessing, and the consequence is 
they do not agree exactly. For instance, you get 
the impression that it is a certain distance to a given 
point ; but when you hire a man to take you there, 
you are astonished to learn that it is immensely 
further than you had any idea of at first. I have 
demolished considerable brain tissue in arranging 
the following tables, which I think pretty nearly 
correct : 

Caldwell 
To Montreal, . _ - . 
New York, _ - _ _ 

Saratoga, _ _ _ _ 
Glen's Falls, ... - 
Half-way House, ... 
Williams' Monument, 
Bloody Pond, - 

Fort Gage, .... - 
Fort George, - . - - 
Luzerne, ..... 
Warrensburgh, . - - 
Adirondack R. R. at Thurman, - 
Chestertown, .... 



20 miles. 


14 




27 




9 




4 




3i 




2 




4 




i 




12 




6 




9 




18 





Table of Distances. 63 

Caldwell 

To Pottersville (Schroon Lake), 
Prospect Mountain House, - 

Down the Lake. 
Crosbyside, _ . . - 

Tea Island, ----- 

Diamond Island, - _ - 

" Healing Spring," 
Lake George Hotel, - - _ 
Long Island, ----- 

East Lake George House, - 
Trout Pavilion, - _ - . 
Kattskill House, - _ _ 

Recluse Island (air line), 
Bolton (less thirty-two rods) 
Fourteen Mile Island (air line), 

(Bolton to Fourteen Mile Island, 3 miles.) 
Narrows, - - - - - 13 

French Point, - - - - 14 

Harbor Islands, - - - - 20 

Hulett's Landing, - - - - 21 

Sabbath Day Point, - - - 22 

Hague, ------ 28 

Anthony's Nose, - - - - 30^ 

Rogers' Slide, _ - _ - 32 

Dock at foot of Lake, - - 33I- 

Village of Ticonderoga, - - i^\ 

Old Fort (steamboat landing), - 37I- 

Ticonderoga to Whitehall, - - 25 
Ticonderoga to Fort Edward, - 45 

Ticonderoga to Glen's Falls, - 50 



27 miles. 


3 


u 


I 




I 




3 




3i 




4 




4 




7 




7 




7 




9 




10 




12 







|E had put on airs at the Fort William 
Henry, admired the relics at the 
Lake House, grown poetical on Fort 
George, haunted the post-office, talked 
Choctaw with the noble red man (who 
always wanted to '' borrer " some- 
thing), climbed to the Mountain- 
House, swilled mineral water with "Uncle Joe," 
and then longed for ''green fields and pastures 
new," so we packed our other clothes, and, taking 
the " Lillie," went on a voyage of discovery down 
the lake. 

TEA ISLAND. 

One mile from the head of the lake, close under 
the western shore, is a perfect little gem, called 
Tea Island, looking like the crater of some extinct 
volcano, with the rim broken away, so that the 
water flows through from the east, forming a 
beautiful harbor in minature. 

Tradition says that Abercrombie buried treasure 
here, and a goodly share of the surface has been 



Tea Island. 



65 



dug over at different times by the treasure seekers. 
On the north side stands the remains of a two- story 
summer-house — the lower part stone, the upper, 
wood. 

It is said that, in 1828, a " Tea-house " (whatever 
that may have been) was kept here to accommodate 
visitors, from Avhich circumstance, it is mistily pre- 




sumed, came the name. It is also reported that, 
before the eastern rim caved in, the hole went clear 
through, and Hawley imported all of his immense 
stock of teas direct from China via Tea Island, 
hence the name. The statement, however, should 
be received with extreme caution, as the author 
has been unable to find mention made of it by either 
Baron Munchausen or the veracious Gulliver. 

Across the bay, west of Tea Island, among the 
pines that line the west side of the road, is the 
modest little cottage of the genial poet-pubhsher, 
A. D. F. Randolph, of New York. 

On the east side, nearly a mile north of Crosby- 
side, is quite a large building, with trees crowding 
against it on all sides, and from the tower often 
6 



66 Lake George. 

comes the sweet, rich tones of a bell, calling its 
occupants together in the little chapel, wherein 
stands the Blessed _ Virgin and her Saviour child. 
The property was formerly owned by the celebrated 
lawyer, Charles O' Conor, and by him presented to 
the society, who have since built there, commonly 
known as the " Paulists," and composed entirely of 
priests, or those who are studying for the priest- 
hood. They, in common with other people, having 
a love for the beautiful, come here to enjoy it. 

Now, on the left, at the water's edge, is a gaily 
painted pagoda-like summer-house; following up 
the graded lawn, to the west, near the summit of 
the hill, we see the elegant summer residence of 
Col. W. W. Price, one of the finest buildings of the 
kind in the country. 




I AMOND ISLAND received its name 
from the quartz crystals found upon 
its surface ; the supply, of late, how- 
ever, " growing small by degrees, 
and beautifully less." It was fortified and 
used as a military depot by Burgoyne, 
after his capture of Ticonderoga, in 1777, and the 
same year was the scene of an engagement between 
the forces then in possession — the English, and a 
party of Americans, under Col. John Brown, re- 
sulting in the defeat of the latter party. 

In 1820 it was occupied by a family who gained 
a living by the sale of crystals found there ; east of 



Long Island. ^y 

it are two nameless little piles of rock, which go to 
make up the 365 islands of the lake. 

At the west, on the side hill, are the lovely grounds 
and tasteful villa of G. H. Cramer, of Troy ; a little 
way further north is " The Healing Spring," then 
Diamond Point, and west of it, Sampson's bay, 
so-called after Sampson Paul, an Indian, who 
flourished about a half century ago, and once, with 
an ordinary fishing-spear, killed a panther, as he, 
benumbed with cold, was coming from the water. 




HE COOLIDGE HOUSE is a quiet 
retreat, with good lake and brook fish- 
ing near by. On the grounds is a spring, 
said to possess rare medicinal properties; 
and, through a break in the mountains, the 
west wind, which is so common at Lake 
George, comes, refreshingly cool and delicious. 
We touch at the dock, then, taking the back track, 
cross the lake, in a southeasterly direction, leaving 
the three sisters on the left, and, when near the east 
shore, turn north, and make for the' opening be- 
tween Long Island and the main land. 

At the south is Dunhams Bay ; the land lying 
nearest to Long Island is West Point, a favorite 
camping-place, as is also the little island, apparently, 
at one time, connected with its larger neighbor, but 
now separated by the action of the water, which 
has washed a shallow channel between the two. 

Long Island is the largest in the lake — about 
one mile in length — having a neat farm near the 
center, and a steamboat dock on the east side ; the 



68 Lake George. 

broad sheet of water extending toward the south is 
known as Harris Bay ; then, in succession, comes 
Slim Pointy Middle Bay and SJieldons Point — another 
camping place of note. 

Here, at Sheldon's Point, annuall}^ come a party 
of graduates of the college of the city of New 
York, who are members of the Manhattan chapter 
of '* Alpha, Delta, Phi," j-ising lights in the literary 
and professional world, Avho, naturally enough, 
sandwich their epicurean entertainments with 
"feasts of reason," and flavor their fish with a 
''flow of soul." 




The society is very ancient, having its origin 
away back in the dark ages, before the English 
language was spoken, as will be readily understood 
from the name, Avhich is the very beginning of 
ancient Greek. As an indication, however, that 
they are about to throw aside all relics of barbar- 
ism and emerge from the gloom of the past into the 
effulgent light of the later days is the name given 
to their camp — '' Camp Manhattan.' ' Manhattan 
being an Indian word, signifying " a place where 
men get drunk." It is hoped, however, that their 
convictions of the eternal fitness of thinsfs will not 



Kattskill Bay. 69 

lead to a literal demonstration of the appropriate- 
ness of the name. 

In the bay, on the east side of the Point, is the 
East Lake Geoi'ge House, kept by J. Griffin ; it is a 
very pleasant, home-like place, with accommoda- 
tions for about twenty guests. The smaller steam- 
ers touch at the dock Avhen required to do so. 

Under the mountain, on the east shore, is Trout 
Pavilion, noted especially for the fine natural 
attractions of the place and for Fourth of July 
dances. 

KATTSKILL HOUSE. 

FEW rods north of the last-named place is 
the " Kattskill House," kept by R. S. Self- 
ridge. It is new ; two to three stories high ; 
ninety-five feet long ; sleeping rooms large — 
each one having two windows, and wxU 
furnished throughout. All steamboats touch at the 
dock. Near by is a very fine bathing beach. The 
mountains back of the house furnish the usual 
amount of game, while the fishing in the bay is good 
and it is said that experts have excellent luck 
in the trout brook near by. From this point the 
steamers run in nearly a straight line for Bolton, 
bending a little from their course to clear the point 
of Little Green Island on the east. 

When in the broad lake once more we see, on the 
east, Buck Moiintam rising about two thousand feet 
above the lake, with here and there a tree clinging 
to its rocky sides. Just south of it is Pilot Moun- 
tain, the two together known as the '' Deer Pas- 
ture." Looking through the narrows from this 




70 



Lake George. 



part of the lake you can sometimes see the giant 
form of Mount Mansfield, resting like a faint blue 
cloud away off in the north. 

On our right, a little south of the summit of 
Buck Mountain, is Phelps Point. Here a party 
have built a neat cottage, which they occupy with 
'' their wives and relations " for two or three weeks 
each year, renting it to other parties at other times, 
"■ furnished," which is allowed to be better than 
camping out, especially if it should happen to rain 
all the time. 




OME ISLi\ND claims our 
attention as being the high- 
est in the lake. Seen from 
the north and south, it has 
the appearance of a huge 
dome, somewhat flattened, 
but having enough of the ap- 
pearance to justify the name. 
It is about nine miles, from Caldwell in a straight line. 
Following along on the western shore we see a 
group of three islands, known as '' The Brothers ;" 
then farther north, and separated from the main 
land by a narrow strip of water, is Clay Island, 
owned by Rev. G. W. Clow, of Hudson, who, 
during his summer vacation, may often be seen 
swinging the axe or piling brush as energetically as 
the most enthusiastic votary of muscular Christian- 
ity could desire. 




• RECLUSE ISLAND. 

<^^^^^P"- Recluse Island probably attracts 
more attention than any other island in the lake. 
It is just west of the regular channel, between 
Dome and Clay islands. From its south end a long 
breakwater extends toward Clay Island. Behind 
it dance gaily painted boats, and a graceful bridge 
is thrown across to " Sloop Island " on the east. 
The encircling belt of Avhitened stones, the many- 
gabled cottage, with its out-buildings, rustic yases 
and arbors, cozy seats, swinging hammocks, and 
pleasant flower-skirted walks winding about among 
the trees, with many gay banners floating oyer it, 
makes the little island-home beautiful as a dream 
of fairy land. 

This is the island memorable as the subject of 
the earthquake hoax of 1868. Late one night a 



72 Lake George. 

telegram was received from Glen's Falls by the 
Associated Press, stating that a violent shaking of 
the earth had been felt at Lake George, and Re- 
cluse island had sunk to a distance of eighty-five 
feet. It took, and was so reported all over the 
country, receiving credence generally from the fact 
that, at that time, earthquakes were very popular, 
and no well-regulated community could hope to be 
considered respectable without at least one. 

But who is the proprietor of this much-talked-of 
little island ? Rufus Wattles, of New York, whom 
you will probably see stretched on the cushions of 
his yacht " Le Solitaire^' as it dances away over the 
water, or resting lazily in the shadow of some island, 
for he is an inveterate sailor, and never pulls when 
the wind will do it for him. For the especial bene- 
fit of the ladies, who are such jewels for keeping a 
secret, I will whisper one : Mr. Wattles is of that 
class known as '' wealthy bachelors," who continu- 
ally hover around the delicious borders of matri- 
mony, often nibbling but never actually biting, and 
tantalizing would-be mothers-in-law by an unwar- 
rantable delay in being caught. 



-^??^7"^' 








BOLTON, 
Which ranks second in size and number 
of guests entertained, to some possesses 
attractions that place it first at Lake 
George ; for, while it is near good fishing ' 
ground, and within easy rowing distance of the 
narrows, it is still connected with the outer world 
by the steamers that touch daily, and a good coun- 
try road, forming a beautiful drive along shore to 
Caldwell. It is rather quiet, and patronized by a 
good class of guests, many of whom are booked for 
the season — but few for less than a fortnight ; while 
that glum, irresponsible species, known as " tran- 
sient," is seldom caught in the neighborhood, its 
visitors apparently coming to enjoy the pure fresh 
air, and the free and easy sort of way that seems to 
go with the place ; and it is generally looked upon as 
the golden mean between two extremes — a sort of 
connecting link (according to the Darwinian theory) 
between the hunters in the narrows and the dan- 
dies at the Fort William Henry. 



74 Lake George. 

Strangers are sometimes at a loss to locate Bolton 
properly. To the guests it means the hotels. A little 
further south the " Huddle," where the post-office 
is situated, is Bolton. It is also gathering around 
the churches, and the shoemaker, pegging indus- 
triously away in the north part of the town, fondly 
imagines that that will be the spot where, at some 
future day, will gather the elite of this highly dif- 
fused village. 

Nearly midway between the hotels the road runs 
up the mountain, which, if followed, will give the 
climber some very fine views of the lake and sur- 
rounding country. From the pinnacle (the highest 
point seen from the hotels, and which is easy of 
access), nearly all the lake to the south and the 
narrows, dotted with its hundred islands, can be 
seen ; then turning slowly around to the north 
we see the bold promontory of Tongue Moun- 
tain, dividing the lake into two parts, its broken, 
rocky sides reflected in Northwest bay ; while 
over against it on the west the cultivated fields 
slope gradually down to the water's edge. 

The drive along the shore southward is delight- 
ful ; that to the north wild, and, at places, grand; 
leading, as it does, around the head of Northwest 
Bay and over the mountain toward Hague. A 
good single " rig " can be obtained from " Lon," 
for a morning or afternoon drive, for about two 
dollars ; a double for four to six. Those desiring 
to fish will have no difficulty in finding men to 
accompany them, who furnish boat, and every 
thing needed for the sport, at three dollars per day. 




i^ 



The Mohican House 

^^ Is not, as its name would seem to 
imply, kept exclusively for the ac- 
commodation of that noble tribe of 
warriors. At present there are not enough of these 
eminently distinguished individuals traveling to 
insure success to an hostlery devoted exclusively 
to them. Neither is the proprietor a " big Ingin " of 
the tribe ; does not resemble them in the least in 
person or act ; was never known, in his most play- 
ful mood, to tomahawk a guest, or even wield the 
sportive scalping-knife, with intent to lift " har." 
Tempting, as the ladies' heads of the present day 
must make it, to a person given to that little recrea- 



^6 Lake George. 

tion, the only chance to prove damages is on the 
ground of dehberately conspiring with his cook to 
lead you into temptation, at his bountifully supplied 
and well-served table. 

The name was given the house, a long time ago, 
by an admirer of Cooper, and on the flag-staff that 
used to stand out toward the dock was erected a 
Avicked-looking wooden w^arrior, wonderfully made, 
who, with tomahawk in hand, perpetually on the 
war-path, stood, through summer's sun and win- 
ter's storm, keeping grim and ceaseless vigils over 
the surrounding country. Time passed : the stately 
form was at last gathered to his fathers, and the 
last solemn rites paid to his memory, but his fame 
is perpetuated in the house that bears the honored 
name, and unprincipled agents still sell his biogra- 
phy, solemnly affirming that each one sold is actu- 
ally the last — of the Mohicans. 

The house is a long, low structure, two stories 
high, fronted by a piazza, and backed by a man 
who has spent the best part of his life catering to 
the public, H. W. Wilson, whose father, before 
him, kept the ''Mohican" for many years. A 
part of the frame of the present hotel was erected 
away back before the beginning of the present 
century, and is said to be the oldest one standing 
in the country. It is also said that on the point 
where the dock now stands was once a building, 
destroyed about the year 1800, which had been 
used by a band of smugglers as~a point of distribu- 
tion for contraband goods brought through from 
Canada. The lawn is shaded by maples and locusts, 
the long point protected by a new and expensive 



The Bolton House. jj 

sea-wall, extending quite a distance out into the 
lake, and terminating in a substantial dock, where 
the guests repair at rosy morn and dewy eve to 
witness the arrival of the steamboat, which is con- 
sidered the great event of the da)^ 

K number of wealthy German families live here 
during the summer, and their refinement is dis- 
played in their happy, social ways, and love for 
their flower-draped homes. One of them, just south 
of '' the Mohican," nearly hidden among the trees 
and bushes, is occupied by F. Thieriot ; on the 
point south of this is another cottage, equally pretty. 
The large, comfortable looking house on the bay 
beyond is the residence of Mr. R. Kanz, an ex- 
banker, of New York, who cultivates his farm on 
scientific principles, to the no small benefit of the 
people round about, and makes it (considered from 
all but ?i financial point of view, which doesn't seem 
to have much weight in the matter), a decided 
success. 

The Bolton House is new (three stories and a 
watch-tower high, with a verandah on two sides) ; 
the rooms are large, airy, and nicely furnished. It 
is pleasantly located, a little north of the Mohican 
House, in an orchard, which, judging from the 
quahty of the fruit found at present, would never 
have tempted our first parents to sin, had they been 
placed there instead of in the garden of Eden. 
Running along the north side of the grounds is a 
magnificent ledge of rocks, commanding a fine view 
of Northwest Ba}', and '' so nice " for young lovers 
to wander over. Just beyond is a fine beach for 
bathing purposes, with a bathing-house for the con- 
7 



78 Lake George. 

venience of guests ; west of the hotel is the church 
of St. Sacrament. 

South of this is the Wells House, kept by good, 
motherly Mrs. Wells^ who can take a family of 
twenty, and make each feel that they are special 
objects of her care. 

A little more than a mile north of the landing, 
opposite the point of the tongue, is the farm-house 
of Stephen Braley, which is spoken very highly of 
by those who have stopped there. The situation is 
pleasant, commanding an extended view of the lake 
toward the south, while that of the narrows, and 
mountain scenery, is grand. Beside the houses 
already mentioned there are others who take in 
strangers occasionally. 





HURCH OF ST. SACRAMENT. 

This church stands to-day a monu- 
ment to one who is still building, 
and shows what one earnest, chris- 
tian woman can do. This is its 
history : In 1861, a young daughter 
of Mr. Thieriot formed the idea of 
erecting a church at Bolton, and to that end 
started a subscription paper. A Sabbath-school 
was organized in a barn near by, and the next 
summer continued under a rude shed, erected 
at the edge of the woods, a little south of Mr. 
Kanz's house. The shed was open on three sides, 
rough boards for seats, and the font, — a calabash ; 
still the beautiful rites of the church were here 
observed, and a number confirmed within its 
shadow. 

In 1867 enough money had been raised to begin 
the building ; the ground was presented by some 
of the citizens of the town. The bell donated by a 
friend, who, in his generosity, gave too much bell 
for the church, and a separate tower had to be built 
to accommodate it. At last, in September, 1869, 
the church, costing about seven thousand dollars, 
was duly consecrated, and made over to the north- 
ern diocese of New York, entirely paid for, and 
that chiefly through the exertions of one weak 
woman — " Miss Hennie," as the villagers call her, 
and surely her faith, like the church which she has 
built, is " founded on a rock." 

**^a iktix vcoxH p isitiaU lunm iJxtta.'' 



So 



Lake George. 



FROM SHORE TO SHORE. 

EAVING Bolton, the steamer runs in a 
north-easterly direction across the lake 
to Fourteen Mile Island, a distance of 
three miles, passing in its course close 
by the south end of Green Island, the 
second in size, which is about half a 
mile long, and separated from the main land by a 
shallow strip of water, which can be easily bridged. 
Next on the left is Crown Island, known in the 
past by the classical name of '' Hog." North of 
this, stretching inland nearly six miles, is North- 
west Bay. 





SHELVING ROCK. 



There is something peculiarly grotesque about 
the appearance of Shelving Rock, viewed from 
the south, looking, as it does, like the head of an 
immense duck, stretched out on the water from its 
great mountain back on the east. There is the long, 
sinuous neck, the round head, the long, flat bill, 
extending toward the Avest, and the white speck on 
the end of the bill is the hotel on Fourteen Mile 
Island. 




Fourteen Mile Island. 

Why so called the oldest in- 

habitant does not say; but it is 

presumed that the distance from the head of the 

lake was guessed at in old times, and called fourteen 

miles. It is, however, but twelve. 

It contains about a dozen acres of land and rock, 
covered with a scanty growth of Norway pine, oak 
and chestnut ; the rocky surface is glorified with 
beautiful lichens, mosses and wavy ferns. On 
the east a deep and narrow channel, through which 
the steamers can easily pass, separates it from the 
main land. On the west side is the hotel, built 
originally as a hunting lodge, and added to as the 
demand called for more room. It will now accom- 



82 Lake George. 

modate about forty guests ; is the lowest point at 
Avhich the excursion boats stop, and noted especially 
for the immaculate neatness of its table. 

The island is a favorite resort for sportsmen, on 
account of its nearness to that mythical spot at 
Lake George, known as the best fishing ground ; 
for, to tell the truth, fishing '' ain't what it used to 
w^as." Experts, however, are ver}' successful here, 
and make it a point of departure for the woods and 
water, managing to w^ork up an appetite to do full 
justice to " Miss Jane's" excellent substantials and 
irreproachable pastries. 

Lying out, as it does, between the point of the 
Tongue and Shelving Rock, with the broad lake 
spreading out on the south, and the Narrow^s, 
gemmed with its many islands, on the north — its 
open position, where the course of the sun can be 
observed from its rising above the frowning '^ rock " 
until its setting behind the pinnacle across the lake, 
together with the great variety of foliage, its ferns 
and moss covered rocks, renders the island pecul- 
iarly attractive to the artist. 

It is owned by E. C. Smith, of Albany, and, as a 
general thing, is not much given to the pomps and 
vanities of dress. Still, it crops out occasionally, 
and especially when the Waltonians come in their 
natty uniforms, to set every body crazy with admi- 
ration ; but even at other times young ladies need 
not be deterred from stopping for fear they Avill not 
receive proper attention, for the Chesterfieldian 
owner spends his summers here, and his ear is 
always open to the cry of beauty in distress, his 
boat and willing arm ready for a voyage of discov- 



Fourteen Mile Island. 83 

ery among the islands ; or, it a mountain is to be 
climbed, his knowledge of the surrounding country, 
and services as a guide, are freely placed at their 
disposal. 

His zeal in this respect, coupled with his chivalric 
nature, has brought him to grief on more than one 
occasion, and compelled him to pass the night 
among the mountains, with a few boughs for his 
bed, and the sk}' above for a covering. He is said 
to be very fond of cold tongue, and '' thereby hangs 
a tale," which you must get him to relate if you 
would hear. 

Just in shore, from the south end of Fourteen 
Mile Island, is the Hen and Chickens, not a cluck- 
ing, scratching, fussy, actual old hen, with her bug- 
pursuing brood, but a pretty little group of islands. 
Something over a mile further south are three or 
four great knob-like, rocky, moss-covered islands, 
rising above the surface ; the largest called Huckle- 
berry Island. South of Huckleberry, close under the 
mountain, is Refuge Island, so-called by Mr. Smith, 
who, Avith his sister Julia, and two friends, were 
here driven ashore, in a fearful storm, in the sum- 
mer of 1870. Turning their boat bottom upward, 
they made themselves as comfortable as possible 
for the night, while friends at Fourteen Mile Island 
vainly searched and swung signals, in hope that 
they might be guided home by them ; but morning 
came at last, bringing with it the hungry, be- 
draggled, starchless quartette, to the no small joy 
of some and disgust of others, who thought that, in 
surviving the storm, the aforesaid party had defeated 
the designs of providence, and lost their only chance 
of rendering their names immortal. 



84 



Lake George. 



Following the rocky shore south of Fourteen 
Mile Island you find many pretty bays and 
headlands. Further along, a little brook makes out 
over a beach, and entering the sandy gate you are 
within one of the most charming of thicket-guarded 




SHELVING ROCK FALLS. 



bays on the lake. Alighting where a noisy brook 
tumbles in, at its head, and following up a little 
way, you will be rewarded by the sight of a perfect 
httle gem, called Shelving Rock Falls. Above this, 
it is very difficult following the bed of the stream, 
but by making a detour to the right you will soon 
reach the house and saw-mill, seen upon the east 
side, looking *' so lonesome," from the deck of the 
passing steamer. 





BLACK MOUNTAIN. 



THE NARROWS. 



To get any adequate idea of the beauties of the 
Narrows, the visitor should not fail in taking a trip 
on one — or, better, both, of the excursion boats, as 
each has a course peculiarly its own, and differing 
from that of the other, varied occasionally at 
the request of passengers or caprice of the pilot. 
Leaving Caldwell, and touching at the several docks 
along the way, they usually, after rounding Green 
Island, turn toward the north, and, passing on the 
w^est of Flora and Turtle islands, along the side of 
Tongue Mountain to near French Point, turn and 
cross the regular channel, north of Phelps' Island, 
by Burnt Island, around Phantom — the home of 
'■' the hermit of Lake George," then winding in and 
out among the many little islets and intricate, mazy 
channels in a way which, in the absence of the 
sun, effectually disarranges all the points of the 
compass, and leaves you perfectly bewildered, when 
they finally leave off turning, and start in a straight 
line for the white house on Fourteen Mile Island. 



86 Lake George. 

THROUGH THE NARROWS. 

Leaving Fourteen Mile Island on the morning 
boat, we head for the west channel, which runs close 
under Tongue Mountain. A mile north the way 
seems blocked by a belt of land extending across 
the lake, but as we approach it separates into groups 
of islands, and the " Minnie," obedient to the slight- 
est touch of her pilot, with many a graceful curve, 
threads the labyrinth, and the emerald gates shut 
us in. 

We are now passing through the wildest portion 
of the lake ; close at our left rise up the broken 
walls of " the Tongue." Black Mountain, on the 
right, over the islands, stretches away to the 
north, seeming to recede as we approach, and travel 
with us, its granite crest lifted over two thousand 
feet above the lake ; its rocky sides seamed and 
scarred and reddened by fires that have swept over 
it in times past. A sentinel, it seems, overlooking 
the whole lake and mountains round about; the 
first to welcome the rising sun, and, at evening, 
glowing in the splendor of the dying day, while 
the valleys below are already misty with the 
shadows of coming night. 

The last of the group on our right, as we pass 
north through the narrows, is ''As You Were 
Island;' which received its odd name from the fol- 
lowing circumstance : An old hunter discovering a 
deer on it one day, fired at him, missed his mark, 
and, in his excitement, sang out, the semi-military 
command : " As you were ! " The startled crea- 
ture, hearing the unusual sound, stood trembling, 



mi 



Through the Narrows. 87 

not knowing which way to fly, until the hunter had 
time to reload, and take aim again, this time bring- 
ing down his game. Close at our left is a rocky 
headland, known as French Point. 

For miles along our silvery pathway we see 
nothing but an unbroken forest, and wild and 
rugged movmtains, unless it may be a solitary 
fisherman, or the white tent of some party "■ rough- 
ing it." Among the cHffs of Tongue Mountain 
eagles build their nests and rear their young year 
after year, and are often seen perched on some dead 
pine or floating, in breathless circles, high up over 
the water. 

" Breathes there a man with soul so dead ?" 

There does, several ; and the proud bird of America 
is often shot by them, be it known to their everlast- 
ing shame. 

Half Way Isle is near the center of a circle, the 
circumference of which is the rim of a mountain that 
rises, amphitheater-like, around its western side, 
and, as its name indicates, marks the center of the 
lake. Close under the north end of Black Moun- 
tain lies a group called the "■ Floating Battery 
Islands." 

The Harbor Islands 
Are near the center of the lake, the steamers 
passing by their west border. The group is the 
first of any considerable size north of the Narrows, 
and was the scene of one of the bloodiest engage- 
ments in the history of the lake. On the evening 
of the 25th of July, 1757, a party of between three 
and four hundred English, under Col. John Parker, 
left Fort William Henry, and proceeded down the 



88 Lake George. 

lake on a scout. When near this place, at dawn of 
the next morning, dark objects shot out from among 
the islands, and the surrounding gloom, to meet 
them, while the horrid war-whoop sounded on all 
sides. As the yelling horde advanced the English 
became panic-stricken, even throwing away their 
arms to lighten their load. They sought safety in 
flight, but their clumsy barges were no match for 
the light canoes of the enemy, who pursued and 
slaughtered them without mercy. Some threw 
themselves into the lake and succeeded in reaching 
the shore, there to be pursued and struck down by 
the savages, who were perfectly at home in the 
forests. 

One hundred and thirty-one of the English were 
killed outright ; twelve escaped, and the rest were 
taken prisoners. Of the latter a few were broiled 
and eaten by the gentle savage, the rest rudely 
snatched away by Montcalm and sent to Montreal. 
Concerning the Indians' great love for their fellow- 
men, Father Roubaud writes : " The first object 
which presented itself to my eyes on arriving there 
was a large fire, while the wooden spits fixed in 
the earth gave signs of a feast — indeed, there was 
one taking place. But oh, heaven, what a feast ! 
The remains of the body of an Englishman was 
there, the skin stripped off and more than one-half 
of the flesh gone. A moment after I perceived these 
inhuman beings eat, with famishing avidity, of this 
human flesh ; I saw them taking up this detestable 
broth in large spoons, and, apparently, without being 
able to satisfy themselves with it; they informed 
me that they had prepared themselves for this feast 



The Harbor Islands. 



89 



by drinking from skulls filled with human blood, 
while their smeared faces and stained lips gave 
evidence of the truth of the story." The good 
father attempted to reason with them, but to no 
avail. One said to him : " Voti have French taste ; 
I have Indian ; this food is good for me^' offering, at 
the time, a piece of the broiled Englishman, which 
delicate httle compliment was not received in a 
very grateful spirit by the fastidious Frenchman. 
Six days after, when Montcalm and his army passed 
by, to attack Fort William Henry, they saw the 
boats and mutilated bodies of many of the English 
floating on the water and strewn along the shore. 



8 




90 



Lake George. 



'^ Captain Sam." 

(From " Summer Seasoning.") 

Vicar's Island is just north of the Harbor Islands. 
Here, on its northern border, an affecting incident 
transpired once, of which Captain Sam Patchen, 
who lived at Sabbath Day Point at the time, was 
the hero. One winter's day he conceived the idea of 
sailing his grist to Bolton mill on the ice. So, 
piling the bags of grain into the old cutter, with a 
pitchfork, held firmly in his hands, for a rudder, he 
hoisted sail and sped away before a strong north 
wind. 




The ice was " glare," and the cutter sailed well — 
remarkably well ; but there was not so much cer- 
tainty about the satisfactory behavior of the steer- 
ing apparatus. The old man, it is said, was given 
to spiritual things occasionally, and had, on this 
occasion, evidently hoisted in rather too much rye 
in the liquid form to conduce to the safe transporta- 
tion of that in the bags. The craft insisted on 



Captain Sam. 91 

heading directly for the island, and could not be 
diverted from its course — it was of the kind called 
"jumper" — a mettlesome old jumper at that, and 
the captain had a great deal of confidence in its 
ability to do whatever it undertook. So he decided 
to jump the island — he tried it ; it was not, strictly 
speaking, a success. The cutter reached the shore, 
and hesitated — a part of it. Sam was anxious to 
get along, and continued on ; then he got discour- 
aged, and paused — in a snow-drift. 

Captain Sam was always dignified, and on this 
occasion it is said his manner of resting on that 
snow-drift was remarkably impressive. Even the 
snow felt moved, and the island itself was touched. 
He felt persuaded that he had made a mistake in 
leaving his cutter, and attempting the underground 
route for Bolton, so he came out and set his radi- 
ant face homeward — not a Sam of joy or a Sam of 
thanksgiving exactly, but a Sam abounding in such 
language as would set a mule driver up in business, 
or even do credit to the boss canvasman of any 
circus traveling. 




92 



Lake George. 



Deer's Leap Mountain is on the west, a little in 
advance ; the top is rounded ; the side facing the 
lake a perpendicular wall of rock, which gives 
back a magnificent echo when called upon so 
to do. At its foot are great frag- 
ments of rock that have fallen 
from time to time, and said to be 
a favorite resort of the rattlesnake. 
Once on a time a buck, pursued 
by hunters, was driven to the brow 
of the precipice, with a yelling 
pack of hounds close at his heels. 

" Not the least obeisance made he ; 
Not a minute stopped or stayed he — " 

but leaping fearlessly, far 
out over the giddy height, 
was impaled 
on the sharp 
point of a 
tree below. 




THE DEER S LEAP. 




Now turn and look toward 
the sun. Black Mountain is 
again taking its position as the chief of the moun- 
tains, sloping from its clearly cut crest off toward 
the south and west. At its north end is The Ele- 
phant. See his well formed head toward the west. 
His eye, and that rift in the mountain side is the 
outline of his massive jaw. The wrinkled neck and 
great rounded back are there, with scattered bris- 
tles of dead pines clearly defined against the bright 
sky beyond. You must call on your imagination 
to supply the trunk, for he came before the lake 
was such a fashionable watering place as at present, 
and not feeling the need of a change of raiment left 
his trunk behind. 

Over beyond the spot, where all well-disposed 
elephants are wont to disport their fly-frightener, 
is Sugar Loaf Mountain. The name alone describes 
it. Its summit, from a little distance beyond Sab- 



94 



Lake George. 



bath Day Point, looks very like a pig lying down, 
his sharp snout pointing toward the east. These 
animals are a part of the lot created " in the begin- 
ning," and were probably overlooked by Noah ; but, 
for all that, they are remarkably well preserved, and 
will undoubtedly stand for some time yet. 

At the foot of The Elephant we see cleared fields 
once more, and in the southernmost one is a white 
farm house, where Hiram Vowers lives, and where, 
during the summer, enthusiastic sportsmen find a 
home free from the annoyance of the crowd and 
unfettered by the claims of fashionable society. 
Good fishing is found among the islands that line 
the shore. The slope commands a fine view of the 
lake each way, and from its exposed position is cool 
and airy. 

Hulett's Landing is a little further north, and 
is the favorite point of departure for the summit 
of Black Mountain, something over four miles dis- 
tant. One of the oldest settlements on the lake, it 
still remains the wildest ; the view northward is 
fine ; that toward the Narrows grand in the ex- 
treme. A trout brook finds its way down the 
mountain side, forming in its descent a series of 
cascades. One is very beautiful, and often painted 
by artists, among them Durand, ^' the father of 
landscape painting in America," who, crowned wath 
his silver hair, is still an enthusiastic student of 
Nature, and turns her pages with an eager hand. 
It is but five miles overland to Lake Champlain, 
striking it at a point about six miles north of White- 
hall. A lovely beach fronts the house ; water 
removed but a few degrees from the freezing point 



The ''Bosom; 



95 



bubbles up at the door ; and, although in a retired 
situation, farmer Hulett usually accommodates a 
family of thirty, who come early and stay late. 
The house, is a " base of supplies " for parties 
camping out on the islands near by, and this retired 
little nook rejoices in the name of the " Bosom," 
whose sweet depths have from time immemorable 
been sought for milk and other luxuries not gener- 
ally found in camp. 





SABBATH DAY POINT 

Has been the scene of many 
stirring incidents in the his- 
tory of Lake George. A 
sandy promontory, extend- 
ing from the west shore ; or, 
more properly, a projecting 
angle — for the lake, which, 



Sabbath Day Point. 97 

from the Narrows, has a north-easterly direction, 
here turns once more toward the north. The 
point, originally, was toward the south, with quite 
a deep bay on the west side ; but the south winds 
have piled up a sandy barrier across to the west 
shore, and, relieved from the constant surging of 
the water, the imprisoned bay has slowly filled with 
the rank vegetation of the marsh. It commands a 
fine view of the approach by water on either hand, 
and would naturally be selected for a camping place 
by parties who had reason to expect an enemy near. 
Here, in 1756, a body of provincials, under Putnam 
and Rogers, repulsed a superior force of French and 
Indians ; and, on the 5th of July, 1758, Abercrombie, 
with his splendidly equipped army of over fifteen 
thousand men, landed for rest and refreshment, 
remaining until near midnight ; then moved down 
the lake, leaving immense fires burning, to give 
the enemy the impression that they were still there. 

In September of the following year Gen. Amherst, 
with twelve thousand men, drew up his boats on 
the sandy beach west of the house, and passed the 
Sabbath with appropriate religious ceremonies. 
To this circumstance is usually ascribed the name, 
which is probably a mistake, for it had been called 
Sabbath Day Point for some years before. The 
origin of the name is unknown. 

Authorities differ, but it is generally conceded 
that an engagement did actually occur here in 1776 
between fifty Americans and a force of tories and 
Indians, resulting in the defeat of the latter. 

In 1765, eleven years before the engagement 
spoken of, we find record of a house here, occu- 






98 Lake George. 

pied by one Samuel Adams. In 1798, Capt. Sam 
Patchen (hero of the cutter ride to Vicar's Island) 
built a log-house near the site of the present build- 
ing; since which the Point has never, to any ex- 
tent, been without its resident family. The present 
owner and occupant is also a Sa7n (Captain Sam 
Westurn), and it seems as though the race of Sam- 
uels was to be perpetuated at the Point (saying 
nothing of our universal uncle of that name), for the 
prospective heir to all the broad acres surrounding 
is also a Samuel — Sammy, Jr. 

There is something so hearty, and cheery, about 
the captain's welcome that you feel rested and re- 
freshed at once. Then, when you go up to the 
house, and Mrs. Westurn dawns on you, like a 
good, motherly, substantial sort of a sunbeam, as 
she is, and bustles about in the preparation of good 
things wherewith to regale the hungry ones that 
gather around her spotless board, you feel that it is 
good to be there ; and, afterward, when ^' Sammy " 
ancl the great, roUicking dog, " Major," who seems 
to owe the steamer a grudge, and barks continually 
while it is near, has shown you the calves and the 
pigs, taken you across the beach, where Amherst 
landed, up the mountain road, past the lonesome, 
lovely old place, where stands the deserted house, 
to the rattle-snake farm ; lead you up the brook to 
the old mill, skirted the mountain side, down to the 
Indian kettles, and shown you every thing else of 
interest — then, after the lamps are lighted, and 
Sam, Sr., regales you with some of his yarns about 
the times when he was a seafaring man on the 
raging Champlain, and Mrs. Sam tells her story of 



The Indian Kettles. 99 

" Old Donica," you are shown to your room, and 
vanish from sight in the snowy depths of one of her 
immaculate beds, while a lullaby comes up from 
the myriad voices of the swamp. Then you feel — 
well, it depends on whether you like feathers or 
not ; if you prefer to remain on the surface you can 
do so, but if you do not feel at Jioine^ it Avill result 
from some cause outside of the treatment you re- 
ceive. 

The ''Indian kettles,'' a few rods north of the 
house, excite considerable wonder and discussion 
as to their origin. Some say that the Aborigines 
made them by building fires on the rock, then by 
throwing cold water on, crack the surface, Avhich 
could be easily removed, and this repeated several 
times would give them the depth required. In 
these they pounded corn, and also cooked it in 
water brought to the boiling point by throwing in 
stones which were heated in a fire near by. They 
are found, close to the water edge, in the solid rock, 
varying in size from an ordinary pail to twice the 
size of a barrel. There is also one on an island in 
the Narrows, and several near Rogers' Slide. The 
other theory of their origin is that they were worn 
out by stones kept turning about by the action of 
the water, long ago, before the clay on the shores 
had hardened into rock. What gives plausibility 
to the latter theory is the fact that, in the rocks at 
Glens Falls, and at other places, are similar holes, 
and no one presumes to ascribe their origin to any 
other cause. 




Across the beach, west of 
Sabbath Day Point, is Bloom- 
er Mountain, with Deer's 
Leap on the south, the two together forming the 
'' Twin Mountains." Just north of the Point is 
the pleasant, home-hke villa of J. F. Chamberlain, 
of New York, and across the lake, on Bluff Head, 
that of the Rev. A. D. Gillette, D. D. 

Four miles north of Sabbath Day Point is the 
Scotch Bonnet, a flat rock west of the channel, 
coming just a little above the surface of the water. 
It received its name from the resemblance which a 
cedar tree that once grew on its surface bore to a 
Scotch cap or '* bonnet." Its place is now taken 
by a stone man, which is quite a work of art, and 
reflects credit on its unknown builder. 

The point beyond is a future hotel site, owned by 
George Pardo, of the ''American," at Glen's Falls. 




\ 



Hague, situated on a broad, sweeping 
bay on the west side, is said to be at the 
widest part of the lake. The general 
character of its scenery is peaceful, lack- 
ing the grandeur of the Narrows, but 
the artist will find plenty of matter for 
study in the great variety of foliage, 
lichens and mosses, the many-colored rocks, the 
rugged islands and the graceful elms, whose slender 
branches droop and sway like the weeping willow, 
the like of which is seen nowhere else at the lake. 

Good bass fishing is found near by, and two fine 
trout brooks render the place attractive to those 
who throw the fly, while the shore, all the way 
9 



I02 Lake George. 

back to Sabbath Day Point, is considered good 
deer ground. It is a point of departure for Lake 
Pharo, but seven miles distant. 

The '' Phoenix Hotel " is three stories high, 
fronted by a two-story piazza; will accommodate 
about fifty comfortably, and is kept by J. W. Rising, 
who sets a remarkably good table at a very reason- 
able price. The situation is pleasant, and the pro- 
prietor is always anxious to please and promote the 
happiness of his guests. 

" John Wheeler's Trout house " is a little further 
north on the shore of the lake — a quiet sort of a 
place, where everybody seems '^ at home," and is 
noted especially for the trout dinners which they 
get up there, parties coming even from the head of 
the lake to indulge in them at one dollar per head. 

The store kept by Lewis Burgess supplies the 
luxuries to a large circle of country round about. 
A cobbler's shop comprise the remainder of the 
pubhc buildings at Hague. At the beach, a little 
way north, Res the charred hulk of the John Jay, 
destroyed by fire in 1856. 




ANTHONY S NOSE. 



From Hague the boat takes a northeasterly direc- 
tion, passing, in its course, a high, rocky island, for 



Rogers' Slide. 



103 



some time used as a camping place by the '' Wal- 
tonians," and still called by their name. It is one 
of the group known as Cook's Islands. Just north 
of it is "Cook's" or "Friend's Point." The 
east shore is " Putnam," from which extends, to- 
ward the west, the mountain called " Anthony's 
Nose." From the bay, on the south, can be seen, 
on the wall of perpendicular rocks, a perfect face 
in profile, looking out toward the west, with smooth 
brow, Roman nose, firm lips, and bearded chin. 
The boat runs close to the point of the nose, so that 
a stone could be easily tossed from the deck against 
its iron-stained sides. Here the water is said to 
reach its greatest depth. 




Rogers' Slide. 

Toward the west a rounded-topped 
mountain is seen, with a smooth wall of 
rock, descending, at a sharp angle, to the 



I04 Lake George. 

water's edge. It is said to have received its name 
from the following circumstance : In the winter of 
i757-8> Robert Rogers, with a small party of 
Rangers, was sent to make observations at Ticon- 
deroga and Crown Point, where he fell in with a , 
party of the enemy, and the skirmish which ensued 
resulted in the total defeat of the English. Rogers 
escaped, and, pursued by the savages, made for the 
summit of what was then called Bald Mountain, 
probably, with the object of putting in practice the 
ruse which his dare-devil nature had suggested. 
Arrived at the brow of the precipice, he threw his 
** luggage" down the steep walls, and, reversing 
himself on his snow-shoes, made his way down 
through a ravine, at the southwest, to the lake ; 
thence around to the foot of the slide. The savages, 
following to the edge of the mountain, where the 
track of the snow-shoes seemed lost in the path 
made by a falling body, expecting, of course, that 
whoever had attempted it could not have reached 
the bottom alive, must have been considerably sur- 
prised to see the brave major making off on the ice 
toward the head of the lake. It is probable that 
they took it for granted that he had actually gone 
down the steep wall ; this admitted, signs that at 
another time would have lead to the discovery of 
the ruse at once, were overlooked, and they, feeling 
that he must be under the protection of the " Great 
Spirit," with characteristic reverence for their 
Deity, desisted from further pursuit. 

Prisoners Isle, on the west side, near the outlet, 
received its name from a bit of history, to the effect 
that a body of Frenchmen taken by Abercrombie, 



Rogers' Slide. 105 

at the time of his advance on the works at Ticon- 
deroga, were here confined, and made their escape 
in the night by wading ashore. The island, prop- 
erly enough, receives marked attention on account 
of this very interesting and very probable story. 
It leads the contemplative mind to grope, in won- 
dering admiration, at the heroism necessary to in- 
duce men, at the risk of wetting their feet, to 
venture across that treacherous ledge to the west 
shore, while the surging water rolled fiercely up- 
ward to their very knees. It also suggests wonder 
that, if this eminently sagacious and far-seeing 
warrior, Abercrombie, trusted to the depth of the 
water alone to keep a drove of Frenchmen, like a 
drove of sheep, he did not immediately, on dis- 
covering that they actually intended to fight, sur- 
render himself and army to them ; but, no ! by the 
most profound strategy he succeeded in making a 
brilliant retreat, and escaped, with the remnant of 
his army — consisting, then, of only about thirteen 
thousand men — from Montcalm's overwhelming 
force of thirty-five hundred. 

Now we near the- spot where once, when May 
flowers were blooming in the woods, came the 
martyr priest, the first white man known to have 
looked upon the silvery water, who named it Lac 
dit St. Sacrament. 

A century passed, and in 1757 the brilliant French- 
man, Montcalm, went south to the conquest of Fort 
William Henry, and the year following came Aber- 
crombie to return the compliment, going back again 
while the flower of the English army lay on the 
bloody field in front of the old French lines. 



io6 Lake George. 

A little elevation at the right, which can hardly be 
dignified by the name of rhountain, commands Ticon- 
deroga, lying just over on the other side ; it received 
the name of '' Mount Defiance " when Burgoyne, 
from its summit, trained guns on the old fort, thereby 
compelling its evacuation by the Americans. 

Toward the north the lake rapidly narrows down 
to a mere creek, hastening forward to its fall ; and 
now, as the clay-stained water decreases in depth, 
the Minnie " feels the bottom," and, hugging down, 
slowly makes her way through the reeds, describ- 
ing in her course the form of a reversed letter S, 
and followed by long outspreading waves that roll 
up muddily and crowd after as if angry that we were 
about to escape. 

Now comes a sharp stroke on the gong down in 
the engine room ; another, followed by two quick 
ones, and the wheels stop, then turn slowly back- 
ward, and with the scuffling of many feet is heard 
the sound of complaining timber, as the boat grates 
against the dock, and the " Minne-ha-ha " rests at 
the foot of the silvery water. 




APPENDIX 



HOTELS. 



Statistics are, literally speaking, very figurative, 
execrable, but convenient. First come the hotels. 

j^^^ For further information, see description 
under proper heading. 



GLEN'S FALLS. 

Terminus of the railroad ; nine miles from Lake 
George. 




ROCKWELL HOUSE. 
H. y. & C. L. RockzvcU, Proprietors. 
Terms $3 per day; $14 to $21 per week. Free 
coach to and from all trains. 



no Lake George. 

AMERICAN HOUSE. 

George Pardo, Proprietor. 
Will accommodate seventy-five guests. Terms 
$2 per day; $10.50 to $12 per week. Free stages 
to and from all trains. 

HALF-WAY HOUSE. 

George Brown, Proprietor. 
Four miles from Lake George. (Specialty, game 
suppers). Terms $2 per day. 

LAKE GEORGE. 
FORT WILLIAM HENRY HOTEL. 

7". Roessle & Son, Proprietors. 
Five to seven stories high ; three hundred and 
thirty-four feet in length. Coaches leave, connect- 
ing with all trains, and all steamers land at the dock. 
Terms $5 per day ; special rates by the week. 

LAKE HOUSE. 
Egbert jf. Gale, Proprietor. 
Three stories high; three hundred feet long; 
telegraph and barber shop in the house ; livery 
stable attached. Coaches connect with all trains, 
and all steamers touch at the landing. Terms $3.50 
per day ; $14 to $17.50 per week. Three cottages 
at special rates. 

HARRIS HOUSE. 

Capt, E. S. Harris, Proprietor. 

Will accommodate forty guests. Terms $2.50 

per day; $10 to $13 per week. Connected with 

the house are ice cream parlors, where every thing 

usually found at such places can be obtained. 



Hotels. hi 

CENTRAL HOTEL. 
T. G. Hoyt, Proprietor. 
Will accommodate sixty. Terms $2 per day. 
Open all the year round. 

CROSBYSIDE. 
F. G. Crosby, Proprietor. 
Large house and three cottages, situated on the 
east shore, one mile from Caldwell. All steamboats 
touch at the dock ; row-boats for the accommoda- 
tion of guests, and hourly ferry to Caldwell ; will 
accommodate two hundred. Terms $14 to $25 per 

week. 

COOLIDGE HOUSE. 

JoJui Cooiidge, Proprietor. 

Situated on the west shore, four miles north of 

Caldwell ; will accommodate thirty-five. Terms 

$10 to $12 per week. 

EAST LAKE GEORGE HOUSE. 

y. Griffin, Proprietor. 
Near Sheldon's Point ; will accommodate twenty. 
Terms $10 per week. 

TROUT PAVILION, 
y. M. Cronkhite, Proprietor. 
Will accommodate eighty. Terms $10 to $15 

per week. 

KATTSKILL HOUSE. 

R. S. Selfridge, Proprietor. 

Situated on Kattskill bay, east of Long Island, 

seven miles from Caldwell ; house new ; rooms large 

and well furnished ; will accommodate eighty guests. 

Terms $10 to $15 per week. 



112 Lake George. 

BOLTON. 

Ten miles from Caldwell. 

MOHICAN HOUSE. 
H. W. Wilson, Proprietor. 
House two stories high ; one hundred and forty 
feet long ; piazza at front ; will accommodate ninety 
guests; terms $15 per week; three steamboats and 
express daily to and from Caldwell ; Happy Lon. 
Dearstyne's livery near by. 

BOLTON HOUSE. 
Norton & Phillips, Proprietors, 
House three stories high ; verandah on two sides ; 
will accommodate sixty guests. Terms $12 to $17.50 
per week ; three steamboats daily. 

WELLS HOUSE. 
Mrs. Wells, Proprietress. 
Is situated a few rods back from the lake, between 
the hotels ; rooms large and airy ; will accommodate 
thirty. Terms $8 to $14 per week. 

" BRALEY'S." 

Stephen Braley, Proprietor. 
Opposite the point of '' The Tongue," a Httle over 
one mile north of Bolton Landing ; will accommo- 
date from sixteen to twenty. Terms $10 per week. 
Twelve miles from Caldwell. 

FOURTEEN MILE ISLAND HOUSE. 

R. G. Bradley & Co., Proprietors. 

Situated at the entrance to the Narrows, twelve 

miles from Caldwell, at the lowest point at which 

the excursion boats land ; will accommodate forty. 

Terms from $10 to $14 per week. 



Hotels. 113 

HIRAM VOWERS' FARM HOUSE. 
Situated at the base of The Elephant, opposite 
Vicar's Island ; will accommodate fifteen. Terms 
$8 per week. 

HULETT'S LANDING. 

Philander Hulett, Proprietor. 
Twenty-one miles from Caldwell. Two farm 
houses ; situated on Bosom Bay, at the north end 
of Black Mountain ; will accommodate thirty guests. 
Terms $8 per week. 

SABBATH DAY POINT. 

Capt. Sam Western, Proprietor. 
Situated on the west shore, twenty-two miles from 
Caldwell ; farm house ; will accommodate from 
fifteen to twenty guests. Terms $9 per week. 

HAGUE. 

Twenty-eight miles from Caldwell ; excellent 
fishing near by. 

PHCENIX HOTEL. 
y. W. Rising, Proprietor. 
House three stories high ; double piazza ; will 
accommodate fifty guests. Terms $2 per day ; $10 
to $12 per week. 

JOHN WHEELER'S TROUT HOUSE 
Will accommodate fifteen. Terms $2 per day ; 
for the season, $7 to $9 per week. Specialty, trout 
dinners. 



114 Lake George. 

FORT TICONDEROGA HOTEL. 
J. B. Wicker, Proprietor. 

Situated at the ruins ; specialty, dinners ; will 
accommodate all who come, at $i each. Here the 
Champlain boats are taken for the north and south. 

Day boats going north arrive at 12.45 P- M. ; night 
boats going north arrive at 10.15 P. M. 

Day boats going south arrive at 2.30 P. M. ; night 
boats going south arrive at 2.30 A. M. 

Excursionists leave Caldwell by Lake George 
steamer at 7.45, and arriving at the foot of the lake 
about II A. M., are conveyed across by Baldwin's 
line of stages, reaching the ruins at noon, and return 
on arrival of boats from the north. 

STEAMBOATS. 

Officers for 1873 — Time Tables, Fares, etc. 

MINNEHAHA. 

Captain, J. C. Babbitt; Clerk, C. P. Russell; 
Pilot, Horace Welch. Leaves Caldwell at 7.45 ; 
arrives at foot of lake about 11 A. M. ; returns on 
arrival of passengers by Champlain steamers ; 
reaches Caldwell at about 7 P. M. ; lands first at 
the Fort William Henry ; second at the Lake 
House ; then at Crosbyside. Fare, including stage 
ride to the ruins, $2.75 ; return same day, $3.00. 

GANOUSKIE. 
Captain and Pilot, A. Hulett ; Clerk, H. R. 
Hulett. Makes daily excursions to the Narrows. 
Leaving Caldwell at 9 A. M. ; returning at 1.30. 
Fare, round trip, $1.50. 



Steamboats and Stages. 115 

LILLIE M. PRICE. 
Captain, E. White ; Pilot, Bur. Phelps. Makes 
daily excursions to the Narrows. Leaving Cald- 
well at 3.30 P. M. ; returning at 6.30 P. M. Fare, 
round trip, $1.50. 

OWL. 

Captain, Lee Harris ; Pilot, Lee ■ ; Crew, 

Harris ; Engineer, Will. Scott. Subject to 

charter at all times, Terms, $5 per hour ; $25 per 

day. 

STAGES. 

GLEN'S FALLS. 

Fare, $1.25. Leaves Caldwell to connect with 

all trains on the R. & S. R. R. Chas. A. Starbuck, 

Agent. 

ADIRONDACK. 

Fare, $1.25. Leaves Caldwell to connect with 
all trains on the Adirondack R. R. at Thurman. 
Charles W. Morgan, iVgent. 

PROBABILITIES 

1. A large steamer on Lake George in 1874 or 
1875. (Machinery ordered.) 

2. Railroad from Glen's Falls. (Bill passed the 
Legislature.) 

3. Railroad from Luzerne. (Bill passed the Leg- 
islature.) 

4. Railroad from Ticonderoga to foot of lake. 
(Line surveyed.) 

5. Spots on the sun discovered, which, it is ex- 
pected, will soon — in course of a few thousand 
years — entirely obscure the brightness of that 
luminary. 



JUST PUBLISHED, 



-TICONDEROGA." 

Containing a history of the Fort — ghmpses of 
tlie olden time — sundry pleasantries, including an 
account of what transpired on a trip overland from 
Lake George to Lake Champlain — with a full page 
map of the Ruins, showing the walls, underground 
rooms, passages, etc., as they are at tJie present day, 
with a full description of the same. Uniform in 
style and size with '' Lake George," and by the 
same author. 



TO BE ISSUED IN 1874. 



-SUMMER SEASONING.' 
" The same being a part of what I know, jiave 
heard, and think about Lake George and the people 
who live there ; " by S. R. Stoddard. 



V92 

















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